bigbendmarine and the rest of N. Florida
- Thread starter Bill
- Start date
Bill
Administrator
Screw the house. She's fine. That's what counts..
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Extremely lucky... especially so in light of how devastating things turned out for those just to our west. This one was a real nail-biter to the end. The weather folks kept doing the windshield wiper forecasts moving the center line east to west and back again in the two days it crossed the gulf. My mom had been down visiting from the Carolinas and I actually encouraged her to leave the day before landfall out of concern that I couldn't trust if the path would click east or west before landfall. It was hooking over our way to the east early the morning of landfall but then suddenly took a northward bounce towards Panama City. Had it not I was prepared to pack up my wife and daughter and run further east towards Jacksonville.
Even with the eye running 70 miles or so to our west we ended up having hourly gusts in the 50mph range from 1pm until 7pm. End result was a few small trees down but didn't lose power at all during the storm. Based on relatively light damage, positive it didn't hit my home as hard as Hermine (2016) or Irma (2017).
We're twenty miles east of Tallahassee and this morning I tried driving into town to see how our business fared. All looked pretty good for the first few miles. After driving about 5 miles I could see that the slightest difference in distance made a big difference. Lots of big trees down in Tallahassee and weather records showed gusts went into the 70s in town. Not nuclear bomb flattening tree loss, but still many adult big trees down. Short road our office is on had two giant pines down, but blessedly our lot in a low spot seemed to dodge the wind. Feeling incredibly lucky, I climbed the hill and cut the big trees up to help our neighboring businesses.
Where each lot seemed to have one or two big trees down on the east side of Tallahassee, friends on the west side of town reported even higher number of trees down.
While I love the Mexico Beach area, in a way landfall there was a blessing in disguise as far as damage costs go. Bad as Panama City took a hit on the chin, had it or Destin been on the east side of the eye costs both in lives and money would have been catastrophically worse. Had it gone up towards St. Marks in the Big Bend and hit Tallahassee and Thomasville GA directly the massive live oaks, big pines, and larger populations would have made for a sight I hope never to see in my lifetime. Once eye crossed Mexico Beach it really went up through rather lightly populated areas including running along the Apalachicola National Forest.
Funny thing is our area being tucked up in the corner of the state makes it historically a spot infrequently hit and / or lightly hit by storms having crossed the peninsula. Ready for one of those 20 year quieter spells!
Even with the eye running 70 miles or so to our west we ended up having hourly gusts in the 50mph range from 1pm until 7pm. End result was a few small trees down but didn't lose power at all during the storm. Based on relatively light damage, positive it didn't hit my home as hard as Hermine (2016) or Irma (2017).
We're twenty miles east of Tallahassee and this morning I tried driving into town to see how our business fared. All looked pretty good for the first few miles. After driving about 5 miles I could see that the slightest difference in distance made a big difference. Lots of big trees down in Tallahassee and weather records showed gusts went into the 70s in town. Not nuclear bomb flattening tree loss, but still many adult big trees down. Short road our office is on had two giant pines down, but blessedly our lot in a low spot seemed to dodge the wind. Feeling incredibly lucky, I climbed the hill and cut the big trees up to help our neighboring businesses.
Where each lot seemed to have one or two big trees down on the east side of Tallahassee, friends on the west side of town reported even higher number of trees down.
While I love the Mexico Beach area, in a way landfall there was a blessing in disguise as far as damage costs go. Bad as Panama City took a hit on the chin, had it or Destin been on the east side of the eye costs both in lives and money would have been catastrophically worse. Had it gone up towards St. Marks in the Big Bend and hit Tallahassee and Thomasville GA directly the massive live oaks, big pines, and larger populations would have made for a sight I hope never to see in my lifetime. Once eye crossed Mexico Beach it really went up through rather lightly populated areas including running along the Apalachicola National Forest.
Funny thing is our area being tucked up in the corner of the state makes it historically a spot infrequently hit and / or lightly hit by storms having crossed the peninsula. Ready for one of those 20 year quieter spells!
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bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Ironic follow-up on having my Mom head back to S.C. -- path ended up going right by my hometown and she DID lose power for a half a day. Best laid plans of mice and men.
swat1018
5 year old buck +
Oh, I agree. But, the day after when you realize you're fine and a long life of possessions and family memories are all gone is a little tough to deal with.
Bill
Administrator
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
One of our employees shared this video with me... to fully appreciate have to have speakers up a bit so can hear just how loud the wind was howling.
She filmed it in Marianna, FL a full 50+ miles inland and just a hair west of the the path the eye wall traveled.
She filmed it in Marianna, FL a full 50+ miles inland and just a hair west of the the path the eye wall traveled.
Big Snow Man
5 year old buck +
Wow that’s some wind
