Hurricane

[Sedalia Dave]

I'm a little amazed at how many people chose to ride out a Category 4 hurricane. One idiot did it on his sailboat. Others stayed in their dwellings located on barrier islands. I suspect that by weeks end the death toll will be in the triple digits.

 

It's not like they didn't know this was going to be a major hurricane and that the storm surge would be massive for at least a hundred miles south of where it made landfall.

 

Can anyone explain why the Naples Florida fire department would choose to ride out the storm in a fire house only a few feet above sea level and soundly within the storm surge zone? With all their trucks out of commision due to flood water and much of their equipment damaged by the same flood what good are they?

Seems to me it would have made more sense to have sent your trucks to higher ground and commandeered a few small fishing boats. At least that way they could assist others. As it is that fire house will be OOC for quite some time. 

 

I guess people are a lot stupider than I thought. 

[Cypress Sun]

9 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

I'm a little amazed at how many people chose to ride out a Category 4 hurricane. One idiot did it on his sailboat. Others stayed in their dwellings located on barrier islands. I suspect that by weeks end the death toll will be in the triple digits.

 

It's not like they didn't know this was going to be a major hurricane and that the storm surge would be massive for at least a hundred miles south of where it made landfall.

 

Can anyone explain why the Naples Florida fire department would choose to ride out the storm in a fire house only a few feet above sea level and soundly within the storm surge zone? With all their trucks out of commision due to flood water and much of their equipment damaged by the same flood what good are they?

Seems to me it would have made more sense to have sent your trucks to higher ground and commandeered a few small fishing boats. At least that way they could assist others. As it is that fire house will be OOC for quite some time. 

 

I guess people are a lot stupider than I thought. 

 

Some people are stupid.

 

"No one told us to evacuate"

Some of the idiots that refused to evacuate the barrier islands, Sanibel, Pine Island, others, are blaming DeSantis for not issuing an evacuation order sooner. Just shows how much idiots know...local County/City government are the ones that issue such orders.

 

Although, on Monday, the centerline in the so-called cone of uncertainty had the storm headed to the Tampa Bay area, the Fort Myers area was well withing the cone. On Tuesday morning, that line had shifted south to just above the Fort Myers area...plenty of time to grab your shit and leave. For the entire week before the hurricane struck, the new people stressed that the line in the middle of the cone meant nothing, it could go anywhere within the cone. The arrogant idiots decided to stay and are now whining about it...got to blame someone for their own stupidity. It's called refusal to accept responsibility for one's own actions, seems to be epidemic in proportions these days.

 

Any and all barrier islands surrounding Florida, are no more than 2' to 5' above mean high tide. The storm surge of any hurricane is well known. The higher the Cat #, the higher the surge. Under the right circumstances, the storm surge could be 20' to 30' above mean high tide and that doesn't include wave height. This surge isn't nice, clean swimming pool water, its nasty salt water filled with debris from all the damage its already caused.

 

For the Fire Department to stay and knowingly leave their equipment in harm's way is just plain stupid, The Fire Chief for that locality should be fired, not demoted...fired.

 

 

 

Years ago, I was replacing duplex receptacles and low devices in a bungalow that had been flooded by (what we still call) "The no-name storm". There were many such dwellings along the coast, this one was right on the water and just a few feet above. The old man was real calm and mellow sitting on the front porch rocking in his rocker. Most all of the other people with the same damage were all stressed out. When I got done, added up the bill, gave it to him and got paid, I asked him why he was so calm and collected. This is what he said, 'Sonny, I've been living here a long time. My daddy lived here before me. He told me 'Son, when you live on the water, sooner or later you're gonna live in the water'".

 

 

 

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

With very few exceptions like say, Mt. Dora which sits on top of a hill, (and not many more like it) think of Florida as a large, flat, island in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  I am very lucky to live in one of the very few "no flood " zones.  My house in Palm Harbor sits 48' above sea level.  If your property doesn't get hit by a storm surge you might wind up under water when a river or a lake crests days after the storm.  In other words, we are all targets here.