Hurricane Ian

[sounding]

A post-analysis of Hurricane IAN will be presented at the next Weather Club meeting, including why the Euro Model (ECMWF) excelled and the American Model (GFS) failed ... The Villages Weather Club (https://www.theweatherclubvillages.com/)

[Vermilion Villager]

What will come out in the next weeks, months, or years is the social impact this particular storm had and is going to have on an aging Florida population. Just like the villages, south west Florida has an enormous population of elderly citizens. There will be a tremendous amount of cleanup and rebuilding to do after the storm.....years worth. What will be analyzed is how an aging population will be able to cope with such complete and utter devastation. Can you imagine if this storm hit in the villages with the half the veracity that it did in Fort Myers Beach? Up until about 48 hours before the storm hit we were looking at a strong cat 1 or possibly cat 2 slow moving hurricane taking a direct hit on the villages. It would have been the strongest hurricane to hit Central Florida in 150 years. Now think of elements of a home needing to be replaced after a hurricane.....air conditioning, roofing, windows. Tens of thousands of homes would be left without these. Right now if your air conditioner gets destroyed you call Munns or one of the others. What if 10,000 people were calling Munns at the same time. With the supply chain issues we've been seeing the last year could they even get you an air conditioner at any price? Same goes for roofing materials or windows. Who are you gonna call when there's no one around and they're all busy for months on end?
Now think of coping with this as a senior citizen like they are in going to be SW Fla. I was telling my wife at 65 I'm in decent shape, but I don't know how easy it would be to pull soaked sheet rock out of the house or even the furniture to drag it out on the street so they could take it away. Imagine being 75 to 80 years old and doing this… In 89° heat with 89% humidity and no air or probably electricity. Something to think about. We're going to see it play out in real life down in SW Fla...............

[sounding]

Easy response ... just move to somewhere else. Personally, I moved to The Villages to get a head start on the next Ice Age. When those glaciers start flowing south again -- land prices in Florida will skyrocket. :)

[Professor]

Watched hurricane Ian from out of state, and saw it march across our lovely state and make a shambles out of many areas. Very sad to see but not unexpected since we live in this tropical paradise.

Quick questions about the Villages area after the storm. Was there much damage locally due to the wind and rain? Is gasoline hard to come by or are most stations open around The Villages now? How about gasoline in the northwest corridor of the state? Any issues there that you are aware of?

We are anxious to get back home to The Villages but don't want to be a drain on services if there are shortages at the moment. Any serious insight would be appreciated.

[sounding]

With respect to The Villages, Ian's impact was weak compared to Irma of 2017. We were on the "good (left)" side of Ian's travel, while we were on the "dirty (right)" side of Irma's travel. Winds were less and I only got 5 inches of rain. Local stores even began to open yesterday afternoon -- after Ian exited Florida and out to sea. Ian started to weaken as it approached southwest Florida (radar and satellite showed it) -- but you will not hear that in the news. Gasoline is available and the streets are clear -- at least in my area.

[Keefelane66]

Easy response ... just move to somewhere else. Personally, I moved to The Villages to get a head start on the next Ice Age. When those glaciers start flowing south again -- land prices in Florida will skyrocket. :)
I don’t think you will live that long to see another ice age

[Michael G.]

Seeing the destruction from Ian in southern Florida I have to wonder.
Isn't living next to the golf or ocean in a remanufactured mobile home in Florida is just asking for trouble?

[Keefelane66]

A post-analysis of Hurricane IAN will be presented at the next Weather Club meeting, including why the Euro Model (ECMWF) excelled and the American Model (GFS) failed ... The Villages Weather Club (https://www.theweatherclubvillages.com/)
Everyone can be a Monday morning quarterback. Wasn’t there a story about someone fighting windmills?

[kkingston57]

What will come out in the next weeks, months, or years is the social impact this particular storm had and is going to have on an aging Florida population. Just like the villages, south west Florida has an enormous population of elderly citizens. There will be a tremendous amount of cleanup and rebuilding to do after the storm.....years worth. What will be analyzed is how an aging population will be able to cope with such complete and utter devastation. Can you imagine if this storm hit in the villages with the half the veracity that it did in Fort Myers Beach? Up until about 48 hours before the storm hit we were looking at a strong cat 1 or possibly cat 2 slow moving hurricane taking a direct hit on the villages. It would have been the strongest hurricane to hit Central Florida in 150 years. Now think of elements of a home needing to be replaced after a hurricane.....air conditioning, roofing, windows. Tens of thousands of homes would be left without these. Right now if your air conditioner gets destroyed you call Munns or one of the others. What if 10,000 people were calling Munns at the same time. With the supply chain issues we've been seeing the last year could they even get you an air conditioner at any price? Same goes for roofing materials or windows. Who are you gonna call when there's no one around and they're all busy for months on end?
Now think of coping with this as a senior citizen like they are in going to be SW Fla. I was telling my wife at 65 I'm in decent shape, but I don't know how easy it would be to pull soaked sheet rock out of the house or even the furniture to drag it out on the street so they could take it away. Imagine being 75 to 80 years old and doing this… In 89° heat with 89% humidity and no air or probably electricity. Something to think about. We're going to see it play out in real life down in SW Fla...............

Very good factual comments. We lived in S. Florida and it appeared to me that most people were lacksadasical around TV when we were in the middle of the cone. Forgot to mention all of the mature trees which would have come down during a cat 1 or 2 storm. On bright side most of the electric is underground. Up till 5-6 years ago, Palm Beach, Florida had hanging(non underground) power lines.

[ljmarenco@aol.com]

It looks great in The Villages today. Weather pleasant, gas prices fine, grocery stores open. Come on home!

[Professor]

Thanks so much for the reply. It means a lot to those of us who have been away.