Breezy Out There
 

Just came in from walking the dog, & it's a might breezy out there.

Seeing 25mph with gusts to 50 at our place right now.

I think is is passing us just about now. Except it is still not moving very fast (23 mph at 5 pm)

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/FLO...-1000x1000.gif

From NOAA.Gov just now

Watching Orlando local news - they have a crew here in The Villages, reporting a tall light fixture down on Buena Vista.

Started walking to the mailbox about 5, figuring getting mail before the rain but the breeze made me change my mind rather quickly

Now 29mph gusting to 54. I think we moved past breezy into moderately windy.

Does anyone know the official “gust” speed here in The Villages last night - was a little stronger than I thought it would be - woke up with my neighbor’s poly patio furniture in my yard, and several of my ceramic outdoor pots were overturned.

Probably a car hit it or it was rotten. Have not noticed any winds strong enough to knock over a light post. Unless it was a tornado but would expect more damage than that from a tornado.

Your neighbor should have secured their stuff before the storm.

The highest I saw was 36mph with gusts to 64.

Porch furniture
 

This hurricane has passed on, but there will be more.

It is ALWAYS your responsibility to move all exterior stuff into your garage. As you saw, furniture can easily become a projectile. Your neighbor could be held accountable for that negligence....

Be prepared next time....

How did everyone make out from the "unsurvivable, catastrophic" storm? Our roof was pelted with acorns for almost 10 minutes last night! Oh, the humanity! And I got half an inch of rain in my gauge.

From what I can gather, it hit the big bend as a "4", instantly dropped to a "1", blew across the entire state before we woke, and is now threatening "unsurvivable, catastrophic" flooding in Atlanta, which has never before in the history of the world, experienced a flood.

But there was one fatality. Apparently a woman was driving around in Tampa yesterday during the hurricane and a street sign fell on her, which allowed the "News" to add the word "deadly" to "unsurvivable" and "catastrophic".

Thankfully, there was a silver lining to all this death and destruction. My kids saw the "news" and called to make sure we were OK!

Instead of being sarcastic it might be more appropriate to be thankful that the storm didn't do much here. Other places were not so lucky. The Villages is one of, if not the best place to be in Florida during hurricanes. I would rather over prepare and not need it rather than the other way around.

Prayers for those affected and safety in cleanup efforts.

Right. Just look at what happened to Fort Myers with hurricane Ian. Catastrophic doesn't just mean loss of life, it also includes the scope of the impact and cost of cleanup and damage. Right now, over 4 million people are without power in the southeast. There is significant flash flooding in Georgia and the Carolinas. Hundreds of people had to be rescued in the Tampa Bay area because of the storm surge.

I realize the media goes overboard with this stuff but I'd rather have too much information than not enough.

Sometimes a little sarcasm seems justified. Early on, the forecast had the storm staying well away from us here. I believe by Wednesday afternoon, the forecast had us receiving less than 2" of rain and at less than 30% chance of 50mph winds. If we weren't going to get the winds and we weren't going to get the rain and we weren't going to get the storm surge then what necessitated the concern and the closures?

I'm thankful hurricane John didn't do much here. But then again, I didn't expect it to since it was not forecast to come here. I'm thankful Helene took the track it did and we knew early on it would not have a great effect here.

Three dead so far now, and the town of Steinatchee is almost completely submerged and uninhabitable. It was absolutely unsurvivable and catastrophic at the shore where the eye hit. There has been major damage, as one would always expect there to be, after the hurricane downgraded to a cat 1 almost immediately after touching soil.

We can be relieved that we didn't get more than the usual "really strong wind and rain" for a couple of hours. But it's nothing to laugh at or joke about, when an entire town is having to decide whether to rebuild, or accept the devastating loss of homes, offices, medical facilities, government buildings, stores and all the stuff in them.

Thanks for the updates from your weather station. I have been mentioning them to my neighbors.

Sorry to minimize the unsurvivable nature of the recent storms. Apparently, a few more people than that woman in Tampa did not survive, and there was even some actual cat-1-level destruction that had not been reported this morning, when I wrote my sarcastic take on the panic.

So, the good news is, we who choose to live in areas relatively safe from hurricanes will have yet another chance to pay for beach dweller risks, as our crooked insurance companies point to this "unservivable storm" next year as the reason they're doubling our already absurd rates, once again.

Much more reasonable (and justified) response!

Body count is up to 11 now by the way - most in Georgia, nowhere near the beach. One can hope the insurance companies will acknowledge that it isn't just beach-front property that risks catastrophic damage from hurricanes, AND that someone in Florida cares enough to reconsider the insurance regulations AND zoning regulations.

Such as - if you have beach-front property, insurance companies are no longer required to cover you for hurricane damage at all, and can jack up your premiums yearly however they see fit if they do end up offering you beachfront property hurricane damage. And no more manufactured homes or movable sheds within "x" feet of the ocean.

Obviously hurricanes can be worse than just damaging beach front property but this one item should be a no-brainer. You make your choices, you takes your chances.

You've got to be kidding me!

According the evening news, the body count's now up to 40, and I'm feeling a lot worse about my comments about this storm. But it still almost seems a joke to call it "unsurvivable", after what I saw during 20 years in Houston and three cat-5 storms.

There, I saw entire communities simply vanish in storm surge on three occasions. I saw entire forests mowed down by 150mph winds. I helped friends clean out from 3' of water in their home even though they were miles from any flood zone. A million homes were destroyed from burst pipes on one simple 10-degree day, when they had to shut down the nuclear reactor that powers the Oil Capital of the World, because the cooling water pond froze over. In fact, we lost power for more than three 3 weeks on four separate occasions, from various weather disasters. With Harvey, I had 36" in my rain gauge in two days and couldn't leave the house for a week. Flood waters lapped at my foundation on that one, which was bermed a foot above ground, but luckily the water never entered the house.

And yet, even though my insurance company, Allstate, dropped me when they left the state, the insurance premiums on my home, which escaped unscathed through all that death and destruction, never even made it to HALF what I pay here, for a 20-year-old concrete-and-steel bunker, rated for 110mph, the same distance from the ocean as my 20-year-old brick-and-pine home with single-pane windows and no wind rating whatsoever, in Houston. And that house sold for enough to buy TWO houses in the Villages.

Nevertheless, I am sorry if my previous flippant attitude offended anyone.

This post reminds me of a couple of posters who pooh-poohed the blizzards in Michigan a few years back. "In MY day we walked to school in the snow." Ignoring the fact that a hundred thousand people were out of power for two weeks in sub-freezing temperatures and schools are so consolidated there are no neighborhood schools in walking distance anymore.

If one wasn't there, one doesn't know.

We have lived through many hurricanes, fierce direct hits during our life and careers in N.C.

While we all dissed Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel for hyping and sensationalizing the wind before it was even blowing, we never underestimated the tragic loss of life possibilities in storms of these magnitudes.

There were 6 lives lost at last count. That's absolutely tragic.

Consider Farmers in storms. They have lost tools, trucks, sheep, goat, pigs, cows, full fields of crops.

You never mock Mother Nature until you've been there in the aftermath to help clean out the rubble, feed the newly homeless, feed the 1st responders, hold an isolated frightened elderly person close and see dead animals caused by flooding.
I prayed for no life lost, during this high flood Cat 3 hurricane. Iam very sad to hear of those 6 lost and of their families now making funeral arrangements, while grieving.
Never, ever underestimate hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes just because you lucked out... this time.

So, having lived through your lots of devistating storms, you must understand that not all damage occurs in beachfront properties, but you blame them for living there and rising insurance costs!!!
Hugo hit Charlotte, 4 hours inland from the coast of NC years ago.

Currently, everyone in "the mountains", yes, The foothills of the Great Smoky Mts., Asheville, NC (7 hours inland) was ordered a "mandatory evacuation" in anticipation of expected flooding.
I don't believe anyone was
"Offended" dude.
What an overabused word. Our egos are strong enough not to be "offended" by anyone's cavelier remarks.

But SMH, saying, Where's the freaking intellect and compassion in our society, anymore?"
I having the experience of 20+ hurricanes in the south, we also know they are extremely unpredictable when coming in over warm waters and can take a turn from the gulf stream waters very quickly. One should NEVER think they know there is no threat.

Hugo was headed for the coast of NC and No Models predicted what it would eventual do- skip right over Wilmington & Raleigh and blast Charlotte. No accorn left on the trees there.

Why don’t you just leave it at your first and last sentence....and then move on. Trying to qualify your post(s) by adding new narratives to it doesn’t change your original premise. Keep thinking your in the safest spot in FL....remember, it’s not just hurricanes than can change your life here...it’s tornados, lightning strikes and yes, flooding. I would caution anyone from ‘poking the bear’...in this case Mother Nature.

To all the other faux ‘meteorologists’ that reside here...with your clubs and Mensa chapter meetings....when will you get over Jim Cantore stuffing you into a locker in weather school!:1rotfl:

That is boring, I rather enjoyed the funny and sarcastic post.

The best part was seeing people get offended by it.

Unsurvivable does not mean what you think it means. People survived, therefore it was not unsurvivable.

Catastrophic, sure, but obviously survivable.

Nah, his kids called him, not you. No kidding for you!

Golfer John Daly lost his home.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/gol...cd0e7f71&ei=13

47 DEAD. Millions without power.
Will ALWAYS heed the call for Safeguard, these storms can hop, skip and jump right into our path, when we least expect it. Err, on the side of caution is a smart policy.

We really need thumbs down for post like this.