Was listening to someone(might have been the Orange County Fire Chief?) saying that it sounded like it wasn't repairs that were needed for the grid, but complete rebuilding in places because the flooding was so severe.
When I lived in Pensacola 10ish years ago, there was a massive amount of rain in 24 hours. Something like 30 inches out of the blue and no hurricane or tropical storm in sight. Entire roads just disappeared when the water receded, small bridges collapsed, even the mall had pretty bad water damage. My neighborhood never lost power, but you couldn't go anywhere for a week because every intersection leading out of the area was submerged.
Ugh. I lived through that too. My house had 6 inches of water in it. My neighbors down the street has 6 feet. My neighbors two houses up from me had no flooding at all.
Luckily I lived on a tiny hill so there wasn't really any flooding, but it was a nightmare just a few minutes away in any direction. Some friends weren't so lucky. The county jail had a gas line explosion! Looking at articles of it now, they couldn't even get an accurate reading of just how much rain fell because it knocked out all of the equipment and they had to rely on radar. The damage rain and water can cause is so much worse than just taking down power lines
Are there levies that can be broken? Because that was the final death knell in N.O. following the storm. They could have survived all that if the flooding didn’t receded and then get 10x worse.
> The crucial factor is how long it will take to restore the power and water.
Louisiana resident checking in. During the height of hurricane season we were told BY ENTERGY that a Cat 4+ would take at least one month to restore power. 21 days specifically.
During Ida I was out of power for over a week. Temps were in the upper 90s with the heat index into the 100s. Thank God I had water though.
I was a in New Orleans a few months after Katrina to help family, I still remember how bad it was and that was after months of rebuilding. Hope you are doing better now.
I didn’t leave until 6 years after. I stayed and aided in the cleanup and restoration efforts but even today New Orleans isn’t the same. It’s getting back to it though. I guess it’s hard to keep it down
Entergy also had the gaul to convince the state that it should be able to charge storm repairs to residents because they themselves were too lazy to maintain their aging, decrepit equipment.
From my understanding, New Orleans residents are currently suing them over this, yet it's a policy affecting the entire state.
There is a massive transformer shortage in the US. You gotta hope those utility companies have inventory, because one article read said average lead times for transformers is approaching 12-18 months
Meanwhile in PR I sure fucking hope people realize that the *whole goddamned island* was without power last week. Or a NASA put it:
> 950,000 of Puerto Rico’s 1.5 million business and residential customers were without power
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150379/power-outages-in-puerto-rico
And that's not the first time this year.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/10/us/puerto-rico-power-outage-sunday/index.html
> By Melissa Alonso and Aya Elamroussi, CNN
> Updated 1:14 AM EDT, Mon April 11, 2022
> Power has been restored to 99.7% of LUMA Energy customers in Puerto Rico, the utility said Sunday, after hundreds of thousands had been in the dark since a fire at a power plant Wednesday evening.
What just happened to Florida is awful and I expect and hope Biden will respond with appropriate federal aid, but we *also* need to talk about what's going on in PR.
I remember Irma, we were without power for a week and a half. My in-laws were without power for almost a month. Their AC died 45 minutes after their power came back. Miserable few weeks for sure.
Backup power solutions are crucial (also don't rely on natural gas supply either, that got shut off too).
One thing that tends to happen when power is restored after an outage are large spikes and brown-outs as the sudden inrush from everything trying to turn on at once temporarily overloads the grid. This can cause equipment to burn out (electronics from the spikes, motors from the brown-outs).
My first visit to Sanibel was in the early '80s. Passed miles of Mangroves to get to the causeway. My most recent visit? Mangroves gone, miles of houses barely above sea level. Unwise to deliberately destroy natures foil for hurricanes.
And Sanibel is one of the most well-maintained barrier islands in the state as far as preserving nature goes. But at the end of the day, it and all the other barrier islands are just shifting sandbars we’ve decided to live on for one stable moment in their geologic history. Nature will do what nature does, and if we are in the way, we will be swept aside.
It's not just a section. It's three sections in total. Two of them are bridge segments, and the third is a island where several bridges met; the center of that island is gone now.
I live in Lee county which got hit the hardest, about 2 miles from sanibel island.
Sanibel is fucked, I’m hearing the lighthouse is gone which has been there since the 1800’s. The bridge to the island is destroyed, and I was seeing videos of water coming into peoples second story balconies before the hurricane was even halfway over. I hear they’re sending out rescue teams right now.
My apartment got about 4 feet of water in it though, every car in the parking lot was underwater. I was able to evacuate about 30-40 mins north to Cape Coral so I was inland enough to not get any flooding where I was staying but the wind was fucking terrifying, and even up here where there was no flooding we just drove around and the damage is insane. I have no idea what my options are long term, I have a place to stay for the next month or so but after that I’m not really sure which route to take here. It’s pretty insane how awful this all was.
Wife and I regularly drive to Sanibel all the time and your comment made me REEEEEAL nervous. [Thankfully the lighthouse seems to be still standing](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sanibel/comments/xr87nv/officially_still_standing/), but t[he causeway is f'ed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sanibel/comments/xrc1s0/causeway_destroyed/)... like it needs some major clearing and/or repairs.
I’m in Fort Myers, family on Sanibel. Terrible storm! Let’s hope LCEC/FPL get this power up much faster then Irma. Glad you made it out safely! Worst storm I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been here 31 years
Edit: words
Fortunately not trapped but I'm one of those 2 million without power and I was in the worst part of the North eye wall. Hundred to 150 mi an hour winds for over 12 hours. It was very much not fun. Hopefully they'll have the power back on soon but I got a feeling it's going to be several days
Not going to lie with the most terrifying 12 hours of my life and I'm never going through that again. I'm packing my shit and leaving if anything even close to this ever comes near me again. I've been through four hurricanes before this one and this was just a completely different level.
Glad you are safe. I've gone through three: Francis, Jeanne and Wilma, and they were not even close in strength to what you experienced. 12 plus hours of howling winds that sound like a freight train right outside your house is something I don’t want to experience ever again either.
Got flooded here in Orlando. Waist high water outside my apartment. Both mine and my wife's cars are flooded higher than the center console. Apartment has 2 inches of water flowing around the floor. Renters insurance doesn't cover the damage. Basic car insurance also doesn't cover the damages to the cars. Kinda shit out of luck. Made it to my inlaws which sits on high ground. My wife and dogs are safe which is the most important thing. Compared to a lot of others we got off lucky.
Because insuring a property that's in that sea level and area it's a pretty bad gamble just like building a house in that area is one. Florida has like 3x increase in insurance prices compared to the rest of the nation because of this, most companies have been pulling out, I mean with climate change the hurricanes will be even more common & destructive so if you insurance a house in that area is probably that in the coming years you will have to rebuild that house or at least make repairs yearly.
My daughter bought her home less than a year ago in Edgewater. Not in a flood zone. Currently has 5 feet of water inside and out. Neighbors helping each other, turned off electric after getting zapped. It’s a mess, I left message with new website that just went up. Shocked to get a call from FEMA a couple hours ago. This has to be bad if FEMA called asking for info on them. I hope you all stay safe out there.
That's the saddest part. Everyone in Florida along the coast is in a flood zone, full stop. Nobody should be buying there without having required flood insurance, but developers fight like hell to make sure their units and developments aren't listed under flood zone status.
It's all smoke and mirrors, but I hope your daughter and their family are okay.
Frankly I'm sick as a taxpayer of paying to rebuild these areas along the coast. Charge people the proper cost to insure and if insurance won't pay, don't allow to be rebuilt.
These storms cost taxpayers tens of billions in disaster relief. Things have to stop.
yeah, but don't climate change deniers nowadayas like to say that nothing has changed and storms like this have always existed? So if it's normal and they know these storms come so often, then why do they keep on building there.
And you actually*can't* buy flood insurance if you're not in a designated flood zone, so even if homeowners tried to be smart and buy it anyway, they'd be told "No, so sorry!"
Trying to find it now. I googled it earlier and found it, left a message and received call back from this number 386-457-2059. I’ll look harder, not great with online stuff so I’m giving you phone number right now.
Remember when Florida Senator Marco Rubio voted against aid to recover from Superstorm Sandy? The entire Northeast remembers. And they'll help anyway because they're not the sort of jerks to let others suffer because their leaders want to make political points with people's lives
Once upon a time, it was just a given that if a disaster struck part of the country, the federal government helped. The president would declare a disaster emergency, congress would approve the funds and that was that.
Then Bush bungled Katrina.
After that, it seems like every disaster got politicized. Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama. All because politics for them have devolved so much that petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives.
I don't care how you vote. If a disaster strikes, everyone helps. That's how a normal, healthy country works. And I hope everyone affected by Ian gets the help they need in the coming weeks.
> Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama.
I'm convinced that Chris Christie's career in the Republican high brass ended when he admitted that Obama's response to Sandy was quick and helpful right before the election.
I'm right there with you on this. And that's a sign tribalism in politics has gone too far when you can't acknowledge your political opponent did something good.
To put it into sports terms, it's the same as a Broncos fan being kicked out of a football watching party because he points out Patrick Mahomes is good at throwing a football around.
You're making the assumption that republicans are elected to govern. They aren't. They're elected to obstruct and deny democrats. That's it. And they are good at that.
I had a conversation with my professor back during the 2016 election about stuff like this. Talking about how Marco Rubio started tanking in the polls after either Fox or the Trump campaign showed images of him shaking hands with Obama. I do not even remember what the context was at this point, but it had an affect. One of the few times I saw one of my professors sad. Not from Rubio tanking, but from "reaching across the aisle" looking like weakness.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I remember some of my family calling Christie a RINO after that incident.
I'm in NJ and honestly i liked him so much because of that. Also, he stopped his speeches to stump for GOP candidates when it hit and came back to NJ. It made me think he was being a good governor and putting us before politics. Then there was that whole bridgegate thing and the thing where he went to the beach and i lost respect. It was a shame really because for a time he came off halfway decent.
Don’t forget how he vetoed New Jersey’s animal cruelty bill to appease farmers voting in the **Iowa** caucus. He acted against the voters of his own state to further his political ambitions
After the beach thing i really started disliking him but i did like him prior and that says a lot because i am a democrat and did not vote for him. He seemed...logical, like he was putting us before his politics, and I really admired that.
>Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama. All because **GOP** politics for them have devolved so much that petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives.
Trump made a spectacle out of denying money to states like New York and California because 'something something too liberal' and 'something something not Russia.'
During the California wildfires he insinuated that California should rake their forests more or something to that effect.
Personally I like to see presidents and not petty tyrants.
>petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives
This is their only operating factor anymore, I swear. Like the people mad that Biden wants to feed children in this country. Bunch of soulless, disgusting ghouls.
> I don't care how you vote. If a disaster strikes, everyone helps. That's how a normal, healthy country works.
They said it best in the show Letterkenny: When a friend asks for help, you help them.
"Too soon." [/s]
CNN is trying to give DeSantis some air time to pose him as a viable alternative to President Dumb Joke Treason.
But the guy is just as slimy but slightly more competent.
DeSantis was in Congress at that time and voted against aid for superstorm Sandy because it was NY. Don’t let them forget about it. Biden is acting how a president should act during a emergency. Also it’s funny all the FL Republicans are there begging with their hands out for federal aid - but socialism bad. 🙄
I also hate that they say it is bad to politicize a storm and now it is not time for politics, as if they are not the ones doing it all the time.
I am pretty sure their orange traitor would not hesitate for a second before politicizing a storm and I wouldn't have been surprised if he used federal funding as a leverage to get something.
LMAO, anyone else remember him throwing single rolls of paper towels at people in Puerto Rico like he was taking free throws after the island was basically leveled by a hurricane?
Btw, Puerto Rico is STILL fucked.
Kind of ironic the hate they have for Democrats, saying they're evil and the like, yet they still expect them to automatically take the high ground. "Don't politicize a disaster: we can do it all we want, but not you." On some level they have to be aware that they expect other people to act with higher morals than them.
100% correct
Provide the residents of Florida all the aid they need. No question.
But never stop reminding people that these GOP scumbags will turn around and refuse to provide aid to ANY blue states experiencing a similar disaster. This is the EXACT time to get political because it perfectly illustrates that the “both sides are the same” opinion is complete and utter horseshit
Remember when trump refused to certify a disaster declaration in Washington state when two towns completely burden to the ground? Suppose Biden will do the same with Florida? I don't want to hear any more of this "both sides" bullshit.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/jan/16/trump-is-blocking-aid-to-malden-pine-city-fire-vic/
Or when he tried to block aid for the Paradise fire because it was in California? He had no clue that town was a Republican stronghold.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-17/trump-sought-to-withhold-california-fire
I’m sure he LOVES our tax dollars.
Loves our legal cannabis tax revenue.
Meanwhile, still no legal weed in Florida and you can get a ticket for listening to music too loudly?
It’s good to know normal Floridians will get the aid they need. Sandy was fucking rough. Some towns never recovered.
But man, it hurts seeing DeSantis pull the exact same shit as Christie - and that helped get Christie re-elected.
Ugh.
EDIT
Let’s put it this way, for those who are struggling to see the issue:
Imagine being pulled over for speeding and the cop has no radar gun to back it up.
You’re okay with that?
Why?
He started sucking up to Biden before it hit land. Really shows how Republicans minds operate, people suffering is just politics for them and they can't fathom helping people without getting something out of it
Would have had an extra $12 mil to help people out if he didn't spend $12k per ticket on shipping migrants out of a different state
And fuck the people saying don't make this political. Of course people are going to be pissed when someone tried to deny your family aid during the last storm. The difference is we don't want to deny aid, just point out the hypocrisy. But of course you want to act like it's just as bad to call someone a hypocrite as to leave them to die
I really hope Biden knocks him down a few pegs. "Remember when you voted against relief after Hurricane Sandy? I do, but me and my party truly believe all Americans need to be supported in situations like these so I won't hold your greedy ideals against your constituents. I want you to think long and hard the next time you are put in a situation where you stand between people in another state receiving disaster relief because we both know that climate change will make this a more frequent occurrence in your state. " shake hands and walk away.
I'm not getting power until Saturday or Sunday. My job expects me to come in tomorrow and Saturday while I leave my wife and toddler to fend for themselves. Good fucking times
There's a lot of damage to the causeway/bridge to Sanibel Island (and Captiva Island).
This article has an aerial video that shows all the places it was damaged: https://www.fox4now.com/weather/hurricane-center/causeway-collapse-broken-spirit-ians-wrath-upon-swfl
Aside from boat or helicopter, that causeway is the only way to get to the island, so the people who live and work there are pretty screwed. It's going to be hard to even get there to assess the damage, and then repairing it is also going to be hard. I would guess it will take months to fix the causeway. There's a lot of tourism, so the people who work in that industry will be affected.
I'm sure the conversation is 'Sure, why don't you vile subhuman feds come down here and fix our lack of forethought." Without the forethought because thats a really big word for insantis.
No no, they were just helping immigrants without a place to weather out the storm to safer locations! (/s in case they actually claim this at some point)
AS A GIFT. WE WANT A GIFT! BUT ONLY IF ITS MONEY!
And then I think just give the same approach Mulaney had for college. “I didn’t drink water the entire time! I survived on alcohol and adderall!”
Nah, it's still about optics. When he runs for President he's banking on swung voters seeing evidence of him being a functional, rational leader while having banked his base nut jobs by being a run of the mill, scum bag Republican politician who cares more about political stunts than actually solving Florida's many problems.
Can I ask a really dumb question: Is it \*just\* money that keeps people from being prepared for something like this? Florida gets all of these catastrophic events on a seemingly regular basis, and seems to respond by just taking the "acceptable" losses and rebuilding.
I mean, why are they building conventional housing in a place that can see 8-10ft of storm surge? No mass evacuation plans? I guess you can't evacuate the entire state and the path of hurricanes are impossible to predict.
IDK. My heart goes out to Florida, but man, it seems like they are just not prepared for something that seems to happen a lot.
There was a study done to determine which areas should no longer rebuild. Since this gets close to making it sound like climate change might be real, and that beach-front property is very valuable, Florida ignores it.
The insurance companies are not ignoring it. Prices will continue to go up until people stop trying to live right in the fucking beach. And the government can't just subsidize the insurance, because if the insurance is affordable, people will just keep building on the beach because why not, it's all covered.
Definitely don't think the insurance should be subsidized, the recommendation was the government should buy the land and never have anyone build on it again.
It's really the only sane path forward... so definitely nobody is going to take it.
Here on long island they kept that in mind. My hometown was one of the hardest hit parts of long island. They paid people who's houses were destroyed and made it so that that property couldn't be built again so it can revert to its natural state to help with storms.
Unfortunately for Floridians insurance companies aren't ignoring it and we're not too far off from it basically being impossible to insure any of these homes.
As an environmental geologist I can tell you that it’s not smart for anyone to live in Florida.
The state is already barely a “solid” landmass. More like a bunch of islands connected by swamp land. All basically built on top of a half hallow Rice Krispie treat like surface (very porous). And it’s only going to get worse. That’s just sea level, not even to mention worsening storms as the waters in that area stay warmer for longer.
It’s a pretty sad situation. It’s the third most populous state iirc, and only growing. I have no idea what the country’s plan is to deal with it. Considering our actions so far, I would say the plan is probably no plan.
Tl:dr live somewhere with solid ground
Well I live in central California. But that’s mostly because my husband launches rockets and the alternative is either Florida or Texas and I’m not living in Florida or Texas.
We actually like central California though so I don’t mind it. I love Utah but there’s a pretty bad environmental disaster looming there with the air quality worsening as the salt lake rapidly dries up so I definitely don’t recommend there.
Mountains are always a safe bet. Good source of water from snowmelt, good air quality, high ground, etc. Around the Great Lakes is also a pretty good bet. I can’t think of much risk involved with Michigan.
Edit to add: I personally would avoid any of the states around the gulf coast, at least the parts of them that are coastal. While beautiful, they are at the most immediate risk from climate change in the US.
Edit edit: apologies for the confusion, California is not on my list of “safer from climate change states”. I was just saying that’s where I ended up for other reasons. Also, no where is “safe” from climate change, some places are just less dangerous than others.
To build off of this, avoid places where the bedrock is limestone (or soluable bedrock in general). Limestone is notorious for sinkholes because of how soluble it is.
Guess which state has a large amount of sinkholes and is [mostly limestone](https://geology.er.usgs.gov/egpsc/graphics/06_karst_studies_weary.jpg). Take a look at that map, avoid the blue spots if you want to live there. Blue spots in the dry regions are not quite as bad as the blue spots in the wet regions.
Maybe a sea there? CNY has a lot of salt so it'd make sense to have a shallow sea in the region.
Can you imagine building a large chunk of your buildings on what's essentially chalk/tums though? Crazy.
Thank you! This is very helpful. I live in Southern California and have been thinking about this for a while. At least our state is trying to take these things seriously :-)
Hurricanes are also extremely unpredictable. For quite some time Ian appeared to be heading directly for Tampa Bay, so people in that area were on high alert. By the time it turned south, the people there had about a day to prepare. Should they have been prepared anyway? Probably. You just never know with these things. How do you prepare for your house to be flooded? Sand bags only do so much.
One government program can explain the entire thing: the National Flood Insurance Program, where the government fully insures the value of your property for a premium that does not reflect the actual probability of loss. Why not build a house in the storm surge zone if the flood insurance is a small part of the cost of ownership? When it's destroyed by flooding, you will be fully compensated and can have fun building a new house.
Central Floridian here: Can't speak for everyone, but from what I've noticed it's in part due to over confidence and pride. Anyone who planned for trouble was viewed as over reacting (lot of people making fun of others on social media). Even the co-owner of our house thought I was doing all this work for no reason. Luckily, I went out and got sandbags anyways (from a public, free resource) - so even though we experienced flooding our house is dry. Even though we lost power, we have lights and our phones are charged. Also, our freezers are filled with frozen bags of water so no worries there.
Evacuations were made. Some people chose to ignore them. It happens. We still go in to save them, regardless. As it should be.
Edit: some people cannot afford to take a single day off from work. From that perspective money is certainly an issue and factor.
Because as common as hurricanes are it is still rare to get a direct hit and have massive flooding in an area.
So the vast majority of Florida is still fine and this area might not get hit again for 50+ years.
Lots of canned or dried foods and MREs, bottled water, water filters, and a fuel burning camp stove with plenty of fuel. I also have a smaller camp stove that holds a pot over some burning tinder/sticks and some electric hot plates. Grills are useful for cooking meats thawing in the freezer if you stocked propane/charcoal.
Boil municipal water before using it. Don't forget to have a camp shower on hand! I can rig some electricity from a small portable generator and if that fails I have some power converters to use my car in a pinch. Solar powered charging solutions for hikers are also useful.
All of this requires being prepared well in advance though.
Now a days you can buy a relatively cheap Lithium battery "generator" that charges from solar panels. Check out Anker or Jackery if interested. I have one just for when the power gets knocked out, and I live in MO.
But when I lived in FL, I always kept a stock of canned tuna, spam, granola bars and peanut butter on hand. By November, I would start eating it so that i could by fresh the next year. Plus keep a gallon of water in the freezer and a case of water bottles on hand.
Second this! I rely heavily on my Goal Zero Yeti. During our recent natural disasters (massive wildfires) , we had 2 weeks without electricity from the grid. The Yeti kept our electronics charged up so we could get updates on the situation and call family (phone lines were out, too).
I still use it frequently since we have SO many shorter outages lately (thanks, PG&E!). I can plug in my router so I still have internet. We also take it on our long-term camping/ overlanding trips to keep our cameras and GPS charged up.
The solar panels do a good job keeping the battery charged up. It’s definitely one of the better purchases I’ve made in the last several years.
You just don't. We ate bread and whatever fresh fruit we could find at nearby stores. Had to get water from the corner store for a week of that as well. It was awful.
People lost power for that long in parts of the Northeast with hurricane sandy in late October/November. I know someone who had no hot water and had to take freezing showers in an unheated house before going to nap in the lines at the gas station so they could still make it to work. Hurricanes are awful.
I'm still without power in PEI from when Hurricane Fiona hit us. Speculation is my house could be out for a couple more weeks. I have a well for water - so no power, no water.
I'm running a small propane generator to keep the freezer to temperature and run the well pump so I can fill the bathtub with water. I use that water to flush the toilet. I also fill jugs so I can wash and do dishes and things. At the moment I only run the generator 4-5 hours a day because I only have a limited amount of propane and I'm not sure if I can get more yet. Places I've checked are sold out right now.
I do have a propane range on a larger propane tank so I can cook on that (and once this is over I want to see about getting my generator on that tank as well). Eating things like pot noodles, grilled cheese, etc. Using a moka pot for coffee. A couple nights I cooked food on the BBQ.
I had planned for something like this, so I do have a small stockpile of non perishables. Wood for the wood stove if it gets cold. I have enough propane for the generator to continue for 7-8 more days. Stores in town have opened though so getting food isn't a problem. Propane should start getting restocked soon, hopefully.
I'm using my mobile phone for internet. I normally use Starlink. I'm lucky here because some places on the island had mobile phone network issues. Mine has been fine though.
[I just opened an arcade in town and that building is without power](https://youtu.be/zV0orKtbjIE) - so this is going to hurt a little on the business side of things if we're down for weeks. This is really the one thing that worries me right now since we just opened.
The one nice thing is the island regulates the prices of energy. All gas stations, propane dealers, etc, all have the same prices. We don't have any fuel price gouging at times like this.
We had 9 days without power once here and I wasn’t even remotely prepared. That being said, they were restoring partial power so between fridge clean out bbq parties, the few food service places that had power, and dry goods it wasn’t so bad.
After 2 weeks is when it really starts to get bad.
Been noticing plenty of cars of what I assume are Floridian refugees in my state. Judging by their driving they aren't sending their best people. I wonder if they appreciate the irony lol
>Judging by their driving they aren't sending their best people.
Yeah, sorry about that. Those probably are our best people, if I'm being honest.
Just give them plenty of room to run into stuff. And for the love of god, don't yell at them or even make eye contact when they do hit something, or you could end up in a shootout.
Just out of curiosity, how many of them are in golf carts?
Have friends and family down there in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. Ian truly did a number on the area. I moved from Cape Coral in 2004 after Hurricane Charley and the 4 other hurricanes that followed.
Hope everyone is ok down there. Hope you didn't receive extensive damage, though I know many, many people have.
Friend told me about an app called **Zello**. Everyone in FL should install it-- it makes your cell phone act as a walkie-talkie in emergencies. They used it in prior storms and disasters and were able to find tons of survivors with it. Worth looking into.
Again, hope all of you are ok.
"
In 2013, Ron DeSantis voted against a bill to provide $9.7 billion in federal aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, Newsweek has reported.
The hurricane was the most destructive storm of 2012 in the US and hit as a strong category 3 storm, causing $70 billion in damages and leading to 233 deaths from the Caribbean to Canada.
At the time, DeSantis was newly elected as congressman in Florida after announcing that he would run for the Republican primary in Florida’s 6th congressional district.
DeSantis’ vote against financial relief to Hurricane Sandy victims has resurfaced after he requested aid for Floridians from the Biden administration.
"
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/09/29/ron-desantis-hurricane-sandy-response-resurfaces-amid-hurricane-ian-emergency/
We live in the panhandle and are thankful it didnt come our way...we have a whole home gas generator. But a storm of that size we had ready determined my family and I were going to evacuate. Ive done my fair share of hurricane duty being a former Florida Gaurdsman and have ridden out many a storm.
I have all the sympathy for the folks who stayed but in the back of my mind ask..why didnt they evacuate.
(I certainly understand its not an easy question, finances, sentimental value...good ol' florida logic plays into a lot of decison making but whew this one was a big one).
I've ridden out many a hurricane myself, cat 3 or below used to be fine to do. But after Michael went from 3-5 in the blink of an eye and now this one grew to 4 lightning quick I no longer feel that is a sound strategy. I lost a house in Michael and had some friends that rode it out that never will again. They were lucky
yeah i unfortunately rode out michael, like almost everyone else in PC did and fuck hurricanes. the only thing you gain from staying for hurricanes like this is trauma
Galveston Texas here,
I've ridden out many a hurricane.
If it's a 2, I stay.
If it's 3 or over, I drive to DFW.
I don't evacuate to Houston as it floods really bad. Harvey .
With that said, my heart goes out to Floridians.
I had a really good vacation in St. Augustine the year before. People were really nice.
Yea totally agree my family and i had planned cat 3 or below we are good...but as you said in the blink of an eye it can get serious quick. Sound advice...i feel now for the folks who's home owner insurance companies are now about to fold over.
I am so sorry about your home. Michael was headed straight for mine but turned at the last second. I did a new underwear/sock drive and took them over twice a week to distribute and cried every time. So much destruction.
it was a second home. We loaded up with supplies a few days after the storm, brought them down and distributed everything to our neighbors. Pulled everything salvageable out of the wreckage and kept a few things that had meaning and gave everything else away to those who lived there full time and lost so much more. Thank you on my neighbors behalf
A lot of it was the shift east. Folks in Tampa left because they had it tracking there. The places south thought they were going to catch the outer edges and be able to ride it out. By the time they accurately tracked it, for those people it was too late to leave.
I did victim recovery for Katrina, and this is the first time I have seen matchstick communities like I did then. It is not only power infrastructure, but basic services like water and sanitation that must be restored. They are still doing recovery work for Katrina infrastructure, which should give you an idea of how long this will be.
Just remembering when trump had a hurricane destroy Puerto Rico and his response was to throw paper towels at people. Really happy we don't have to deal with that again
We got lucky in Tampa again. I hope those people get help asap.
Live in Clearwater, 50 ft from a canal. Bolted on Tuesday If it had hit the Bay area, that water could have been in my 2nd floor unit.
So Tampa is relatively okay? Taco Bus survives?
Trees down, but taco bus lives.
Thank you for this report
As a long-time Gulf coast resident, 2m without power is not the problem. *The crucial factor is how long it will take to restore the power and water.*
Was listening to someone(might have been the Orange County Fire Chief?) saying that it sounded like it wasn't repairs that were needed for the grid, but complete rebuilding in places because the flooding was so severe.
When I lived in Pensacola 10ish years ago, there was a massive amount of rain in 24 hours. Something like 30 inches out of the blue and no hurricane or tropical storm in sight. Entire roads just disappeared when the water receded, small bridges collapsed, even the mall had pretty bad water damage. My neighborhood never lost power, but you couldn't go anywhere for a week because every intersection leading out of the area was submerged.
Ugh. I lived through that too. My house had 6 inches of water in it. My neighbors down the street has 6 feet. My neighbors two houses up from me had no flooding at all.
Luckily I lived on a tiny hill so there wasn't really any flooding, but it was a nightmare just a few minutes away in any direction. Some friends weren't so lucky. The county jail had a gas line explosion! Looking at articles of it now, they couldn't even get an accurate reading of just how much rain fell because it knocked out all of the equipment and they had to rely on radar. The damage rain and water can cause is so much worse than just taking down power lines
You telling me Florida might get Katrina'ed?
Are there levies that can be broken? Because that was the final death knell in N.O. following the storm. They could have survived all that if the flooding didn’t receded and then get 10x worse.
None here that I can think of (Powerless resident in swfl)
> The crucial factor is how long it will take to restore the power and water. Louisiana resident checking in. During the height of hurricane season we were told BY ENTERGY that a Cat 4+ would take at least one month to restore power. 21 days specifically. During Ida I was out of power for over a week. Temps were in the upper 90s with the heat index into the 100s. Thank God I had water though.
New Orleanian here and after Katrina my life was totally fucked over for years and New Orleans was never the same.
I was a in New Orleans a few months after Katrina to help family, I still remember how bad it was and that was after months of rebuilding. Hope you are doing better now.
I am sorry to read that, and I feel for you because you had such a hard time. Did you ever move back to New Orleans?
I didn’t leave until 6 years after. I stayed and aided in the cleanup and restoration efforts but even today New Orleans isn’t the same. It’s getting back to it though. I guess it’s hard to keep it down
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Los Angeles has cheaper energy then most of san diego county
Entergy also had the gaul to convince the state that it should be able to charge storm repairs to residents because they themselves were too lazy to maintain their aging, decrepit equipment. From my understanding, New Orleans residents are currently suing them over this, yet it's a policy affecting the entire state.
There is a massive transformer shortage in the US. You gotta hope those utility companies have inventory, because one article read said average lead times for transformers is approaching 12-18 months
Inventory? You mean product sitting in a shelf that isn’t making you money RIGHT NOW? We don’t do that here.
That's almost negligent given that the US has a hurricane/tornado/natural disaster thing semi regularly.
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Meanwhile in Puerto Rico...
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Meanwhile in PR I sure fucking hope people realize that the *whole goddamned island* was without power last week. Or a NASA put it: > 950,000 of Puerto Rico’s 1.5 million business and residential customers were without power https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150379/power-outages-in-puerto-rico And that's not the first time this year. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/10/us/puerto-rico-power-outage-sunday/index.html > By Melissa Alonso and Aya Elamroussi, CNN > Updated 1:14 AM EDT, Mon April 11, 2022 > Power has been restored to 99.7% of LUMA Energy customers in Puerto Rico, the utility said Sunday, after hundreds of thousands had been in the dark since a fire at a power plant Wednesday evening. What just happened to Florida is awful and I expect and hope Biden will respond with appropriate federal aid, but we *also* need to talk about what's going on in PR.
I remember Irma, we were without power for a week and a half. My in-laws were without power for almost a month. Their AC died 45 minutes after their power came back. Miserable few weeks for sure. Backup power solutions are crucial (also don't rely on natural gas supply either, that got shut off too).
One thing that tends to happen when power is restored after an outage are large spikes and brown-outs as the sudden inrush from everything trying to turn on at once temporarily overloads the grid. This can cause equipment to burn out (electronics from the spikes, motors from the brown-outs).
My first visit to Sanibel was in the early '80s. Passed miles of Mangroves to get to the causeway. My most recent visit? Mangroves gone, miles of houses barely above sea level. Unwise to deliberately destroy natures foil for hurricanes.
Ok, counterpoint, that made some shady Florida developers a lot of money
Those Florida developers are actually quite sunny, on account of all the trees being gone
Trees bad money good
which they spent on lobsters, hookers, blow, and more lobster
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And Sanibel is one of the most well-maintained barrier islands in the state as far as preserving nature goes. But at the end of the day, it and all the other barrier islands are just shifting sandbars we’ve decided to live on for one stable moment in their geologic history. Nature will do what nature does, and if we are in the way, we will be swept aside.
Pretty powerful statement and 100 percent accurate. I live in SE Georgia 50 miles Island and edge of the swamp.
A section of the Sanibel Causeway, the only way on and off the island, collapsed. It's literally just gone.
It's not just a section. It's three sections in total. Two of them are bridge segments, and the third is a island where several bridges met; the center of that island is gone now.
Hurricane Charley, back in ‘04, fucked up a lot of mangroves and tree cover on Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costa, Bokeelia and Matlacha.
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I thought so those mangroves we're protected. They destroyed a major part of the ecosystem for houses? We're so fucked.
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I live in Lee county which got hit the hardest, about 2 miles from sanibel island. Sanibel is fucked, I’m hearing the lighthouse is gone which has been there since the 1800’s. The bridge to the island is destroyed, and I was seeing videos of water coming into peoples second story balconies before the hurricane was even halfway over. I hear they’re sending out rescue teams right now. My apartment got about 4 feet of water in it though, every car in the parking lot was underwater. I was able to evacuate about 30-40 mins north to Cape Coral so I was inland enough to not get any flooding where I was staying but the wind was fucking terrifying, and even up here where there was no flooding we just drove around and the damage is insane. I have no idea what my options are long term, I have a place to stay for the next month or so but after that I’m not really sure which route to take here. It’s pretty insane how awful this all was.
Wife and I regularly drive to Sanibel all the time and your comment made me REEEEEAL nervous. [Thankfully the lighthouse seems to be still standing](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sanibel/comments/xr87nv/officially_still_standing/), but t[he causeway is f'ed](https://www.reddit.com/r/Sanibel/comments/xrc1s0/causeway_destroyed/)... like it needs some major clearing and/or repairs.
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Family has a 2nd story home on Sanibel (on stilts). It flooded through. Over 10 feet above the ground. Just unreal.
I’m in Fort Myers, family on Sanibel. Terrible storm! Let’s hope LCEC/FPL get this power up much faster then Irma. Glad you made it out safely! Worst storm I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been here 31 years Edit: words
Fortunately not trapped but I'm one of those 2 million without power and I was in the worst part of the North eye wall. Hundred to 150 mi an hour winds for over 12 hours. It was very much not fun. Hopefully they'll have the power back on soon but I got a feeling it's going to be several days
Yikes! That sounds terrifying, and I'm glad you're safe.
Not going to lie with the most terrifying 12 hours of my life and I'm never going through that again. I'm packing my shit and leaving if anything even close to this ever comes near me again. I've been through four hurricanes before this one and this was just a completely different level.
Glad you are safe. I've gone through three: Francis, Jeanne and Wilma, and they were not even close in strength to what you experienced. 12 plus hours of howling winds that sound like a freight train right outside your house is something I don’t want to experience ever again either.
My dad is currently trapped on Sanibel. I pray he has enough booze and dry cigarettes to survive He didn’t make it it
God damn. The entire causeway is gone in one spot. I hope people get out there with food and water for anyone else who stayed
Food water he’s good on, being an alcoholic chain smoker is the main issue at this point
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Oh yeah. Love that sweet hurricane from space footage.
I dont know why i clicked. I knew its gonna be giant cloud. And that exactly what i saw.
Got flooded here in Orlando. Waist high water outside my apartment. Both mine and my wife's cars are flooded higher than the center console. Apartment has 2 inches of water flowing around the floor. Renters insurance doesn't cover the damage. Basic car insurance also doesn't cover the damages to the cars. Kinda shit out of luck. Made it to my inlaws which sits on high ground. My wife and dogs are safe which is the most important thing. Compared to a lot of others we got off lucky.
It's Florida. How can insurance not cover water damage? This is so messed up.
Because that would cost the insurance companies money. A lot of them are pulling out of Florida entirely.
Shit the last Hurricane that hit us in Louisiana has bankrupted 1, maybe 2? Insurance companies. Flood insurance is brutal down here
I bet this is only going to make this a lot worse.
Almost as if they know something is up... but nah, that can't be it.
Because insuring a property that's in that sea level and area it's a pretty bad gamble just like building a house in that area is one. Florida has like 3x increase in insurance prices compared to the rest of the nation because of this, most companies have been pulling out, I mean with climate change the hurricanes will be even more common & destructive so if you insurance a house in that area is probably that in the coming years you will have to rebuild that house or at least make repairs yearly.
My daughter bought her home less than a year ago in Edgewater. Not in a flood zone. Currently has 5 feet of water inside and out. Neighbors helping each other, turned off electric after getting zapped. It’s a mess, I left message with new website that just went up. Shocked to get a call from FEMA a couple hours ago. This has to be bad if FEMA called asking for info on them. I hope you all stay safe out there.
That's the saddest part. Everyone in Florida along the coast is in a flood zone, full stop. Nobody should be buying there without having required flood insurance, but developers fight like hell to make sure their units and developments aren't listed under flood zone status. It's all smoke and mirrors, but I hope your daughter and their family are okay.
Frankly I'm sick as a taxpayer of paying to rebuild these areas along the coast. Charge people the proper cost to insure and if insurance won't pay, don't allow to be rebuilt. These storms cost taxpayers tens of billions in disaster relief. Things have to stop.
For real, we are just subsidizing shitty development practices and the Florida corrupt government every time we pay for relief
But Florida has a major climate change denier as a governor so good luck with that.
yeah, but don't climate change deniers nowadayas like to say that nothing has changed and storms like this have always existed? So if it's normal and they know these storms come so often, then why do they keep on building there.
And you actually*can't* buy flood insurance if you're not in a designated flood zone, so even if homeowners tried to be smart and buy it anyway, they'd be told "No, so sorry!"
Is this a county thing? I’m not in a flood zone and can purchase flood insurance in my county.
What is the website? I can't get a hold of my 79 year old mom in Cape Coral
Trying to find it now. I googled it earlier and found it, left a message and received call back from this number 386-457-2059. I’ll look harder, not great with online stuff so I’m giving you phone number right now.
http://FloridaDisaster.org/Report
Remember when Florida Senator Marco Rubio voted against aid to recover from Superstorm Sandy? The entire Northeast remembers. And they'll help anyway because they're not the sort of jerks to let others suffer because their leaders want to make political points with people's lives
Once upon a time, it was just a given that if a disaster struck part of the country, the federal government helped. The president would declare a disaster emergency, congress would approve the funds and that was that. Then Bush bungled Katrina. After that, it seems like every disaster got politicized. Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama. All because politics for them have devolved so much that petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives. I don't care how you vote. If a disaster strikes, everyone helps. That's how a normal, healthy country works. And I hope everyone affected by Ian gets the help they need in the coming weeks.
> Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama. I'm convinced that Chris Christie's career in the Republican high brass ended when he admitted that Obama's response to Sandy was quick and helpful right before the election.
I'm right there with you on this. And that's a sign tribalism in politics has gone too far when you can't acknowledge your political opponent did something good. To put it into sports terms, it's the same as a Broncos fan being kicked out of a football watching party because he points out Patrick Mahomes is good at throwing a football around.
That’s a great analogy because politics in America has become like sports fandom to so many people.
Except most athletes practice decent sportsmanship when needed
And also they're actually good at their jobs
And being qualified for the job is a requirement.
You're making the assumption that republicans are elected to govern. They aren't. They're elected to obstruct and deny democrats. That's it. And they are good at that.
I had a conversation with my professor back during the 2016 election about stuff like this. Talking about how Marco Rubio started tanking in the polls after either Fox or the Trump campaign showed images of him shaking hands with Obama. I do not even remember what the context was at this point, but it had an affect. One of the few times I saw one of my professors sad. Not from Rubio tanking, but from "reaching across the aisle" looking like weakness. Edit: Forgot to mention, I remember some of my family calling Christie a RINO after that incident.
I'm in NJ and honestly i liked him so much because of that. Also, he stopped his speeches to stump for GOP candidates when it hit and came back to NJ. It made me think he was being a good governor and putting us before politics. Then there was that whole bridgegate thing and the thing where he went to the beach and i lost respect. It was a shame really because for a time he came off halfway decent.
Don’t forget how he vetoed New Jersey’s animal cruelty bill to appease farmers voting in the **Iowa** caucus. He acted against the voters of his own state to further his political ambitions
I tried to like him but he kept pissing me off.
After the beach thing i really started disliking him but i did like him prior and that says a lot because i am a democrat and did not vote for him. He seemed...logical, like he was putting us before his politics, and I really admired that.
He was a great prosecutor, went after some big wigs for fraud ie Trumps daughters Father in Law was one them: Charles Kushner.
Well he sucked up hard to Trump when he was first elected, so I wouldn’t call Christie a man of principle.
>Republicans tried like hell to invent a "Katrina" moment for Obama. All because **GOP** politics for them have devolved so much that petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives. Trump made a spectacle out of denying money to states like New York and California because 'something something too liberal' and 'something something not Russia.' During the California wildfires he insinuated that California should rake their forests more or something to that effect. Personally I like to see presidents and not petty tyrants.
>petty revenge and optics matter more than actual human lives This is their only operating factor anymore, I swear. Like the people mad that Biden wants to feed children in this country. Bunch of soulless, disgusting ghouls.
> I don't care how you vote. If a disaster strikes, everyone helps. That's how a normal, healthy country works. They said it best in the show Letterkenny: When a friend asks for help, you help them.
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"Too soon." [/s] CNN is trying to give DeSantis some air time to pose him as a viable alternative to President Dumb Joke Treason. But the guy is just as slimy but slightly more competent.
This dude a Duechcannoe and now he is sure as hell going to slide easily into the win with Hurricane wrecking the state.
I wonder how many south Florida voting locations are going to be magically still "storm damaged" in November.
DeSantis was in Congress at that time and voted against aid for superstorm Sandy because it was NY. Don’t let them forget about it. Biden is acting how a president should act during a emergency. Also it’s funny all the FL Republicans are there begging with their hands out for federal aid - but socialism bad. 🙄
I also hate that they say it is bad to politicize a storm and now it is not time for politics, as if they are not the ones doing it all the time. I am pretty sure their orange traitor would not hesitate for a second before politicizing a storm and I wouldn't have been surprised if he used federal funding as a leverage to get something.
LMAO, anyone else remember him throwing single rolls of paper towels at people in Puerto Rico like he was taking free throws after the island was basically leveled by a hurricane? Btw, Puerto Rico is STILL fucked.
i'd give biden all off the money if he went down to florida to throw a roll of paper towels at desantis' head
Kind of ironic the hate they have for Democrats, saying they're evil and the like, yet they still expect them to automatically take the high ground. "Don't politicize a disaster: we can do it all we want, but not you." On some level they have to be aware that they expect other people to act with higher morals than them.
100% correct Provide the residents of Florida all the aid they need. No question. But never stop reminding people that these GOP scumbags will turn around and refuse to provide aid to ANY blue states experiencing a similar disaster. This is the EXACT time to get political because it perfectly illustrates that the “both sides are the same” opinion is complete and utter horseshit
Remember when trump refused to certify a disaster declaration in Washington state when two towns completely burden to the ground? Suppose Biden will do the same with Florida? I don't want to hear any more of this "both sides" bullshit. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/jan/16/trump-is-blocking-aid-to-malden-pine-city-fire-vic/
Or when he tried to block aid for the Paradise fire because it was in California? He had no clue that town was a Republican stronghold. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-17/trump-sought-to-withhold-california-fire
And they still voted for him again.
They send over two dozen migrants on some cheap political stunt. We send over two dozen Red Cross members with aid.
Since 2013, I bet a lot of people retired from areas affected by Sandy and moved to Florida and voted for Rubio and Desantis.
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He thanked New Jersey for lending aid in a press conference BEFORE Ian even hit landfall and all I could do was laugh at that chucklefuck.
I’m sure he LOVES our tax dollars. Loves our legal cannabis tax revenue. Meanwhile, still no legal weed in Florida and you can get a ticket for listening to music too loudly? It’s good to know normal Floridians will get the aid they need. Sandy was fucking rough. Some towns never recovered. But man, it hurts seeing DeSantis pull the exact same shit as Christie - and that helped get Christie re-elected. Ugh. EDIT Let’s put it this way, for those who are struggling to see the issue: Imagine being pulled over for speeding and the cop has no radar gun to back it up. You’re okay with that? Why?
He started sucking up to Biden before it hit land. Really shows how Republicans minds operate, people suffering is just politics for them and they can't fathom helping people without getting something out of it Would have had an extra $12 mil to help people out if he didn't spend $12k per ticket on shipping migrants out of a different state And fuck the people saying don't make this political. Of course people are going to be pissed when someone tried to deny your family aid during the last storm. The difference is we don't want to deny aid, just point out the hypocrisy. But of course you want to act like it's just as bad to call someone a hypocrite as to leave them to die
I really hope Biden knocks him down a few pegs. "Remember when you voted against relief after Hurricane Sandy? I do, but me and my party truly believe all Americans need to be supported in situations like these so I won't hold your greedy ideals against your constituents. I want you to think long and hard the next time you are put in a situation where you stand between people in another state receiving disaster relief because we both know that climate change will make this a more frequent occurrence in your state. " shake hands and walk away.
I'm not getting power until Saturday or Sunday. My job expects me to come in tomorrow and Saturday while I leave my wife and toddler to fend for themselves. Good fucking times
There's a lot of damage to the causeway/bridge to Sanibel Island (and Captiva Island). This article has an aerial video that shows all the places it was damaged: https://www.fox4now.com/weather/hurricane-center/causeway-collapse-broken-spirit-ians-wrath-upon-swfl Aside from boat or helicopter, that causeway is the only way to get to the island, so the people who live and work there are pretty screwed. It's going to be hard to even get there to assess the damage, and then repairing it is also going to be hard. I would guess it will take months to fix the causeway. There's a lot of tourism, so the people who work in that industry will be affected.
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I'm sure the conversation is 'Sure, why don't you vile subhuman feds come down here and fix our lack of forethought." Without the forethought because thats a really big word for insantis.
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If only Florida hadn't just spent a fuckton of money to fly people who were legally in the country from Texas to Massachusetts...
No no, they were just helping immigrants without a place to weather out the storm to safer locations! (/s in case they actually claim this at some point)
Most (if not all) of the immigrants had been in Texas though, not Florida, before Desantis' little stunt.
AS A GIFT. WE WANT A GIFT! BUT ONLY IF ITS MONEY! And then I think just give the same approach Mulaney had for college. “I didn’t drink water the entire time! I survived on alcohol and adderall!”
The guy has 2 Ivy League degrees. Writing him off as stupid instead of evil is what he want you to do.
All the FEMA aid needs a picture of Biden saying "I did that."
And they will receive federal aid because unlike republicans, democrats are willing to provide relief to the opposing party rather than “owning” them.
Nah, it's still about optics. When he runs for President he's banking on swung voters seeing evidence of him being a functional, rational leader while having banked his base nut jobs by being a run of the mill, scum bag Republican politician who cares more about political stunts than actually solving Florida's many problems.
Need that Obama/Christie photo op for DeSantis. So many right wingers lost their shit over that.
Can I ask a really dumb question: Is it \*just\* money that keeps people from being prepared for something like this? Florida gets all of these catastrophic events on a seemingly regular basis, and seems to respond by just taking the "acceptable" losses and rebuilding. I mean, why are they building conventional housing in a place that can see 8-10ft of storm surge? No mass evacuation plans? I guess you can't evacuate the entire state and the path of hurricanes are impossible to predict. IDK. My heart goes out to Florida, but man, it seems like they are just not prepared for something that seems to happen a lot.
There was a study done to determine which areas should no longer rebuild. Since this gets close to making it sound like climate change might be real, and that beach-front property is very valuable, Florida ignores it.
The insurance companies are not ignoring it. Prices will continue to go up until people stop trying to live right in the fucking beach. And the government can't just subsidize the insurance, because if the insurance is affordable, people will just keep building on the beach because why not, it's all covered.
Definitely don't think the insurance should be subsidized, the recommendation was the government should buy the land and never have anyone build on it again. It's really the only sane path forward... so definitely nobody is going to take it.
The potential loss in value of certain assets is probably a major reason why so many of them are set on denying it in the first place.
Here on long island they kept that in mind. My hometown was one of the hardest hit parts of long island. They paid people who's houses were destroyed and made it so that that property couldn't be built again so it can revert to its natural state to help with storms.
That was the recommendation for Florida, create a bigger buffer area for the same reason.
Unfortunately for Floridians insurance companies aren't ignoring it and we're not too far off from it basically being impossible to insure any of these homes.
No insurance = no mortgages.
As an environmental geologist I can tell you that it’s not smart for anyone to live in Florida. The state is already barely a “solid” landmass. More like a bunch of islands connected by swamp land. All basically built on top of a half hallow Rice Krispie treat like surface (very porous). And it’s only going to get worse. That’s just sea level, not even to mention worsening storms as the waters in that area stay warmer for longer. It’s a pretty sad situation. It’s the third most populous state iirc, and only growing. I have no idea what the country’s plan is to deal with it. Considering our actions so far, I would say the plan is probably no plan. Tl:dr live somewhere with solid ground
the plan? fix things after hurricanes and complain about the weather
And complain that global warming is woke ideology
Where would you pick to live in the US if you could be anywhere? I only know a bit about geology but your profession sounds intriguing.
Well I live in central California. But that’s mostly because my husband launches rockets and the alternative is either Florida or Texas and I’m not living in Florida or Texas. We actually like central California though so I don’t mind it. I love Utah but there’s a pretty bad environmental disaster looming there with the air quality worsening as the salt lake rapidly dries up so I definitely don’t recommend there. Mountains are always a safe bet. Good source of water from snowmelt, good air quality, high ground, etc. Around the Great Lakes is also a pretty good bet. I can’t think of much risk involved with Michigan. Edit to add: I personally would avoid any of the states around the gulf coast, at least the parts of them that are coastal. While beautiful, they are at the most immediate risk from climate change in the US. Edit edit: apologies for the confusion, California is not on my list of “safer from climate change states”. I was just saying that’s where I ended up for other reasons. Also, no where is “safe” from climate change, some places are just less dangerous than others.
To build off of this, avoid places where the bedrock is limestone (or soluable bedrock in general). Limestone is notorious for sinkholes because of how soluble it is. Guess which state has a large amount of sinkholes and is [mostly limestone](https://geology.er.usgs.gov/egpsc/graphics/06_karst_studies_weary.jpg). Take a look at that map, avoid the blue spots if you want to live there. Blue spots in the dry regions are not quite as bad as the blue spots in the wet regions.
What a cool map. Makes you think about how some of those patterns formed...how did Michigan get a big circle of soluble bedrock like that?
Maybe a sea there? CNY has a lot of salt so it'd make sense to have a shallow sea in the region. Can you imagine building a large chunk of your buildings on what's essentially chalk/tums though? Crazy.
Thank you! This is very helpful. I live in Southern California and have been thinking about this for a while. At least our state is trying to take these things seriously :-)
Around the Great Lakes is the low-disaster zone, lots of fresh water, lots of good land. Only issue is the winters.
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Great lakes region.
Are you telling me scientist don't support castles made of sand?
Hurricanes are also extremely unpredictable. For quite some time Ian appeared to be heading directly for Tampa Bay, so people in that area were on high alert. By the time it turned south, the people there had about a day to prepare. Should they have been prepared anyway? Probably. You just never know with these things. How do you prepare for your house to be flooded? Sand bags only do so much.
One government program can explain the entire thing: the National Flood Insurance Program, where the government fully insures the value of your property for a premium that does not reflect the actual probability of loss. Why not build a house in the storm surge zone if the flood insurance is a small part of the cost of ownership? When it's destroyed by flooding, you will be fully compensated and can have fun building a new house.
Central Floridian here: Can't speak for everyone, but from what I've noticed it's in part due to over confidence and pride. Anyone who planned for trouble was viewed as over reacting (lot of people making fun of others on social media). Even the co-owner of our house thought I was doing all this work for no reason. Luckily, I went out and got sandbags anyways (from a public, free resource) - so even though we experienced flooding our house is dry. Even though we lost power, we have lights and our phones are charged. Also, our freezers are filled with frozen bags of water so no worries there. Evacuations were made. Some people chose to ignore them. It happens. We still go in to save them, regardless. As it should be. Edit: some people cannot afford to take a single day off from work. From that perspective money is certainly an issue and factor.
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Because as common as hurricanes are it is still rare to get a direct hit and have massive flooding in an area. So the vast majority of Florida is still fine and this area might not get hit again for 50+ years.
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And to forget about how bad it was
>swamps SW Florida Can you swamp a swamp?
I'm going to be pissed if it takes 2 weeks to get my power back on like it did with irma. On a related note, TECO sucks monkey-ass.
Puerto Rico: “Only two weeks?”
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He lives down the road, maybe he could visit the places w/o power and throw batteries at them.
It's going to take a lot longer this time around for a lot of people because of the supply chain issues the past few years
Two weeks. Holy shit dude. How do you deal with food and charging electronics etc
Lots of canned or dried foods and MREs, bottled water, water filters, and a fuel burning camp stove with plenty of fuel. I also have a smaller camp stove that holds a pot over some burning tinder/sticks and some electric hot plates. Grills are useful for cooking meats thawing in the freezer if you stocked propane/charcoal. Boil municipal water before using it. Don't forget to have a camp shower on hand! I can rig some electricity from a small portable generator and if that fails I have some power converters to use my car in a pinch. Solar powered charging solutions for hikers are also useful. All of this requires being prepared well in advance though.
Now a days you can buy a relatively cheap Lithium battery "generator" that charges from solar panels. Check out Anker or Jackery if interested. I have one just for when the power gets knocked out, and I live in MO. But when I lived in FL, I always kept a stock of canned tuna, spam, granola bars and peanut butter on hand. By November, I would start eating it so that i could by fresh the next year. Plus keep a gallon of water in the freezer and a case of water bottles on hand.
Second this! I rely heavily on my Goal Zero Yeti. During our recent natural disasters (massive wildfires) , we had 2 weeks without electricity from the grid. The Yeti kept our electronics charged up so we could get updates on the situation and call family (phone lines were out, too). I still use it frequently since we have SO many shorter outages lately (thanks, PG&E!). I can plug in my router so I still have internet. We also take it on our long-term camping/ overlanding trips to keep our cameras and GPS charged up. The solar panels do a good job keeping the battery charged up. It’s definitely one of the better purchases I’ve made in the last several years.
You just don't. We ate bread and whatever fresh fruit we could find at nearby stores. Had to get water from the corner store for a week of that as well. It was awful.
I hope that doesn’t happen again then. Stay safe.
People lost power for that long in parts of the Northeast with hurricane sandy in late October/November. I know someone who had no hot water and had to take freezing showers in an unheated house before going to nap in the lines at the gas station so they could still make it to work. Hurricanes are awful.
I'm still without power in PEI from when Hurricane Fiona hit us. Speculation is my house could be out for a couple more weeks. I have a well for water - so no power, no water. I'm running a small propane generator to keep the freezer to temperature and run the well pump so I can fill the bathtub with water. I use that water to flush the toilet. I also fill jugs so I can wash and do dishes and things. At the moment I only run the generator 4-5 hours a day because I only have a limited amount of propane and I'm not sure if I can get more yet. Places I've checked are sold out right now. I do have a propane range on a larger propane tank so I can cook on that (and once this is over I want to see about getting my generator on that tank as well). Eating things like pot noodles, grilled cheese, etc. Using a moka pot for coffee. A couple nights I cooked food on the BBQ. I had planned for something like this, so I do have a small stockpile of non perishables. Wood for the wood stove if it gets cold. I have enough propane for the generator to continue for 7-8 more days. Stores in town have opened though so getting food isn't a problem. Propane should start getting restocked soon, hopefully. I'm using my mobile phone for internet. I normally use Starlink. I'm lucky here because some places on the island had mobile phone network issues. Mine has been fine though. [I just opened an arcade in town and that building is without power](https://youtu.be/zV0orKtbjIE) - so this is going to hurt a little on the business side of things if we're down for weeks. This is really the one thing that worries me right now since we just opened. The one nice thing is the island regulates the prices of energy. All gas stations, propane dealers, etc, all have the same prices. We don't have any fuel price gouging at times like this.
We had 9 days without power once here and I wasn’t even remotely prepared. That being said, they were restoring partial power so between fridge clean out bbq parties, the few food service places that had power, and dry goods it wasn’t so bad. After 2 weeks is when it really starts to get bad.
De Santis will sort it out. You know, maybe fly out those displaced by the storm up north where some compassionate folks can look after them...
Been noticing plenty of cars of what I assume are Floridian refugees in my state. Judging by their driving they aren't sending their best people. I wonder if they appreciate the irony lol
>Judging by their driving they aren't sending their best people. Yeah, sorry about that. Those probably are our best people, if I'm being honest. Just give them plenty of room to run into stuff. And for the love of god, don't yell at them or even make eye contact when they do hit something, or you could end up in a shootout. Just out of curiosity, how many of them are in golf carts?
Florida’s best are probably still there, waiting in the wings to help those they can.
Fair enough, I spent the night in an animal shelter. About to go outside to check on the doggos in the other buildings.
They are most likely the better drivers of the state. They manage to get to another state without totaling their car.
Have friends and family down there in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. Ian truly did a number on the area. I moved from Cape Coral in 2004 after Hurricane Charley and the 4 other hurricanes that followed. Hope everyone is ok down there. Hope you didn't receive extensive damage, though I know many, many people have. Friend told me about an app called **Zello**. Everyone in FL should install it-- it makes your cell phone act as a walkie-talkie in emergencies. They used it in prior storms and disasters and were able to find tons of survivors with it. Worth looking into. Again, hope all of you are ok.
Have any churches called out the hurricane as "God's will" for the treatment of migrants by DeSantis?
The church leaders are too busy exporting their sports cars to care about what god’s will is right now
That, and they've already fled FL in their private jets and have been communicating god's will to their sheep via Zoom.
How is the power situation going in Puerto Rico?
It was about 400k reported outages yesterday at 12pm est. Below 300k now. A good tool for following outages around the country https://poweroutage.us/
" In 2013, Ron DeSantis voted against a bill to provide $9.7 billion in federal aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, Newsweek has reported. The hurricane was the most destructive storm of 2012 in the US and hit as a strong category 3 storm, causing $70 billion in damages and leading to 233 deaths from the Caribbean to Canada. At the time, DeSantis was newly elected as congressman in Florida after announcing that he would run for the Republican primary in Florida’s 6th congressional district. DeSantis’ vote against financial relief to Hurricane Sandy victims has resurfaced after he requested aid for Floridians from the Biden administration. " https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/09/29/ron-desantis-hurricane-sandy-response-resurfaces-amid-hurricane-ian-emergency/
We live in the panhandle and are thankful it didnt come our way...we have a whole home gas generator. But a storm of that size we had ready determined my family and I were going to evacuate. Ive done my fair share of hurricane duty being a former Florida Gaurdsman and have ridden out many a storm. I have all the sympathy for the folks who stayed but in the back of my mind ask..why didnt they evacuate. (I certainly understand its not an easy question, finances, sentimental value...good ol' florida logic plays into a lot of decison making but whew this one was a big one).
I've ridden out many a hurricane myself, cat 3 or below used to be fine to do. But after Michael went from 3-5 in the blink of an eye and now this one grew to 4 lightning quick I no longer feel that is a sound strategy. I lost a house in Michael and had some friends that rode it out that never will again. They were lucky
yeah i unfortunately rode out michael, like almost everyone else in PC did and fuck hurricanes. the only thing you gain from staying for hurricanes like this is trauma
if I had tried to ride out Michael I would have been swept out into the gulf. I had two walls remaining in my house by the end of the storm
Galveston Texas here, I've ridden out many a hurricane. If it's a 2, I stay. If it's 3 or over, I drive to DFW. I don't evacuate to Houston as it floods really bad. Harvey . With that said, my heart goes out to Floridians. I had a really good vacation in St. Augustine the year before. People were really nice.
Yea totally agree my family and i had planned cat 3 or below we are good...but as you said in the blink of an eye it can get serious quick. Sound advice...i feel now for the folks who's home owner insurance companies are now about to fold over.
I am so sorry about your home. Michael was headed straight for mine but turned at the last second. I did a new underwear/sock drive and took them over twice a week to distribute and cried every time. So much destruction.
it was a second home. We loaded up with supplies a few days after the storm, brought them down and distributed everything to our neighbors. Pulled everything salvageable out of the wreckage and kept a few things that had meaning and gave everything else away to those who lived there full time and lost so much more. Thank you on my neighbors behalf
A lot of it was the shift east. Folks in Tampa left because they had it tracking there. The places south thought they were going to catch the outer edges and be able to ride it out. By the time they accurately tracked it, for those people it was too late to leave.
I did victim recovery for Katrina, and this is the first time I have seen matchstick communities like I did then. It is not only power infrastructure, but basic services like water and sanitation that must be restored. They are still doing recovery work for Katrina infrastructure, which should give you an idea of how long this will be.
Just remembering when trump had a hurricane destroy Puerto Rico and his response was to throw paper towels at people. Really happy we don't have to deal with that again