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Just like last week a hurricane is headed to Florida.. This one, however, if it follows the predicted path will hit Tampa Bay directly, something that hasn't happened in over 100 years. Tampa bay metro area is a very populated area, home of ~3.3 Million people along a low coastline. St. Petersburg just had some storm damage/flooding last week. I used to live in that area for many years, went to college there, my kids were born there, I have many friends and some relatives that live there as well.

My thoughts are with them, I hope everyone is safe. Tampa Bay is under mandatory evacuation, I offered friends and relatives to come stay at my place while this thing passes, seems like this time the storm impact there will be serious. If it hits St. Pete, there could be a 10+ feet storm surge in the bay, 100+mph winds, fallen trees, flying roof debris, floating houses, etc. in a densely populated area, the second largest metropolitan area in Florida after Miami.

Brian, seems you will be affected as well, I'd just drive to St. Augustine for a couple of days, come visit the East Coast and we'll watch it over a brew from here.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
https://www.cyclocane.com/
https://www.ventusky.com/?p=24.36;-83.26;6&l=gust

i live in clearwater, my house is 28' above sea level so no flooding, but i have spent the better part of the day boarding up windows and securing things here.
the plywood i got from Ken ,RIP, 20years ago when i couldn't find any wood, saved my butt

ya last weeks storm caused a bunch of flooding\damage and a bunch of debris is still on the sides of the roads, should be interesting to see what happens this time

Yeah, hopefully no direct impact, good that you boarded up though. Didn't realize there is 28' above sea level in Clearwater, that's good at least. My brother lives in Temple Terrace, I have friends in St. Pete who mostly said they'll shelter in place, I only have one friend from Tiera Verde driving up here.

Stay safe Mark, hopefully it weakens and turns before it makes landfall.

Hurricane Helene flooded 2x of our 3x buildings on our lot. Our lot is 8' above sea level. Helene covered it in just short of 2' of swamp/brackish water. We have a big pond in our back yard, with 6x alligators, that connects to a creek which hits the intercoastal behind Don Pedro Island...by Stump Pass, also near Lemon Bay. My wifes Yoga studio took in 8" of water...ruined a bit of her stuff. our laundry shed/utility shed...at ground level, took in almost 2'.

Our house..the water level came up to about 1/2" to the door threshold. Didn't come inside the house floors, but..it did get into the HVAC ducting under the floors. Swampy..stinky. We're renting...planned on renting for about a year or two. Lucky we did.

So we have an estimated 10' flood....just short of 10'....from Helene.
Miltons predicted surge for our area was up to a 10'-16'. So may have had it near shoulder height inside the house. We could only load "so much" stuff in my truck and my wifes Jeep when we left for Naples. Got clothing and some important small items, pictures, sentimental stuff like wall decorations from traveling, etc. We basically had to accept losing all our furniture, our incredible Tempur Pedic bed, all my kitchen stuff, all the stuff in my wifes yoga studio and my shed. Tough to try to mentally prepare for that. Since Milton has...diminished...some of the surge warnings has gone down "a little". But if it's still over 10' for our area, we'll be losing stuff.

We were of course evacuated for Milton. Retreated to my brother in laws condo in Naples. Not too bad down here although lots of tornados...
I see Milton has kept a bit north and is destined for Tampa Bay...after a few scares of it heading south towards Sarasota or Venice. The old indian burial grounds of Tampa Bay may have lost their ju-ju. Sad no matter where it goes...it's not like anyone wants to wish that it hits elsewhere...as it will impact many no matter where it goes.

And time to find a new place to live, wife is insisting a bit more inland. I had 1x place lined up but it's in an evac zone C...and she wants like..beyond an E.

Thanks for checking in Brian, furniture and stuff can be replaced, glad you're ok. Hope you have electricity and there is not much property damage.

That was definitely very rough couple of weeks for the FL west coast. The flooding from hurricane Helene in St. Pete was extensive, higher than people have seen in 30+ years, cars got flooded, furniture was on many street curbs throughout the city and still there for this storm.

This was highly unusual one-two punch on the west FL coast. Milton is the first hurricane to pass within 50 miles of Tampa in over 100 years. It seems Milton made landfall in Sarasota, we have a couple of friends there that went to a shelter and are ok, haven't heard about property damages yet. Talked to someone in St. Pete last night and he was fine too. Because the eye went through Sarasota there was not much storm surge in Tampa Bay (there was actually negative 2 feet), just some very heavy rain (14 inches) and wind damage. Further south where you live storm surge may have been bad though, I heard about 5'+ in Naples, not sure.

My brother's house in Tampa has large trees around, one of them got uprooted and is leaning on the roof of his house, just hanging over their swimming pool. It hasn't done much damage to the house or roof yet.. Just that it's a heavy tree leaning on the house, and he's scrambling to find any company to cut it down and prevent further damage, hard to reach anyone after the storm.

We still keep our house in Tampa that we rent out. There was some soffit vent that got blown off, but not much other damage that my tenant can see. I will get that repaired, but if that's all we got lucky.


Brian hopefully the storm surge wasn't that bad around your place this time around.

Hope you, Mark, and everyone else is ok.

Property damage was high.
The town of Englewood looks like Hiroshima or Nagasaki must have looked at the end of WWII.
The once beautiful barrier islands of Boca Grand, Manasota, Don Pedro, Casey...absolute and total destruction. The waters...already having a few boat wrecks still in the water from Ian...filled with so many more boats, debris, wreckage, carnage. Restaurants that began rebuilding after Helene...owners already stating they can't do it again, and closing for good.

6x months into opening a branch office here...there isn't going to be a town of businesses to support.

We're probably backing up and moving north to Crystal River or Dunnelon.
The south west FL shoreline is just...tanked....Ian was enough struggle for most of it. Back to back hurricanes within 2x weeks of each other..(Helene and Milton)...is the knockout punch for most.

YeOldeStonecat wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2024 8:27 pm

6x months into opening a branch office here...there isn't going to be a town of businesses to support.

That's just awful. Hopefully you can find a place that will support you and your family.

Sounds terrible what happened to the west coast down there. Despite the devastation, they will rebuild.

I think Englewood, North Port, Sarasota, etc. are somewhat more vibrant and touristy areas than north of Crystal River, up there is a much older, sleepy part of Florida.
People will rebuild, one should just avoid the barrier islands and flood zones when looking for any property. We've been lucky so far in that in 33 years living in Florida, so far we've only had a few roof shingles blown off once.

cat, sorry to hear what you have been through, you will recover.

we got kinda lucky here in clearwater, the storm turned slightly south and weaken some before landfall, but we had a very long period of high winds and very heavy rains.
not much storm surge here but a ton of trees toppled over, either weak/diseased trees or a bunch that the root balls couldn't hold on for the saturated ground.

personally only damage i have is a bit of fence the toppled over because neighbors fence took it when their old fence fell over.

i had plywood covering every window, front door secured with lumber, 2 car garage door reinforced with lumber as well.

i just had power restored 30minutes ago, good thing i bought a big generator before last hurricane and a bunch of 5 gallon gas cans, even had neighbors on both sides where i ran extension cords to them for their refrigerators running as well as mine and a bunch of lights, microwave, ect.

it's always funny how neighbors can pull together and be so friendly and helpfull when the power is out everywhere, but as soon as power is restored they all scurry away to home untill the next time.

the last few days people were going nuts trying to gas up their vehicles, reports of a few fights and such, today no lines that i saw.

that's why the tell ya to fill your vehicles before the storm, and not just drive around playing looky loo

Cat, I'd also consider flood zones before buying a place with these recent hurricanes, it helps not to have to pay flood insurance.
https://www.augurisk.com/city/Florida/E ... 8675779863

Yeah for sure when it comes time to buy, I'll be studying flood zones closely. Elevation, etc. Already dealt with that back up in CT...having a house "right on the water" there.
Anyways..update, we moved to Venice...inland Venice a bit, near where Jacaranda meets East Venice Ave...by that rotary, near Rt 75.
We got a place in an "active adult community" that is like a mini resort..much like a little Sandals club. It's called "The Floridian Club of Sarasota". (even though located in Venice, guess they just refer to Sarasota County). https://www.liveatthefloridian.com/
Just lease here.
Will do for a couple of years. My wife always leaned towards Venice. A bit crowded for me, I preferred the laid back old school beach town feel of Englewood. But...well, happy wife, happy life. I traded in my 2 minute 30 second commute from our house to my office....for a 35 minute commute (outside of season). In your map that you linked Philip..my unit is not in purple...it's in the "safe".

When we were looking for a new place, my wife was trying to come up with a "sign"...a sign that a place was right for us. She said "If I see a purple flower..it's for us". We toured the place, and other places. She didn't see one. We went to do a second tour of this place, she still didn't see one...just before we were to leave, she went to the bathroom...and on the bathroom sink counter, was a vase of purple flowers. That was her sign. As we signed up...she was given a parking space with a number...and that number was our daughters date of birth. There's a second sign! My favorite desert is Key Lime Pie. The street we live on...Key Lime Drive! There's a third sign!

But we're inland pretty good. The "complex" itself...it's like an enclosed little resort. She'll be happy there. Lots of activities to do, gorgeous pool area with grills and fire pits and tiki bars all for our use. The grounds look very nice. And the villas...all very nice, modern, solid and safe.

So...still have my office in Englewood...love it here. The little town has so much heart.
But maybe...due to the commute...after my lease is up here....I'll move my office to somewhere in Venice.

Looks nice, glad you found a good place. Inland is pretty safe if you're not in a flood zone. The coastline appeals to me as well, but not flood insurance and wind impact, heh. Ideally I'd like to live on a protected intracoastal somewhere, but I'm too cheap for that, boating is good enough for me

Some of those zones on the FL West coast got flooded from Helene this time, like more than half of those "purple" areas on the map. I know of a few people in NE St. Petersburg that got flooded, where they hadn't seen any flooding in the past 30+ years, and a couple of friends up in Homosassa.

Yeah, and Helene poured a lot of water on FL (as well as states more north)....that saturated the ground, that was already still fairly saturated from Debbie...so when Milton came through, water had nowhere to go but UP. Rivers swelled...heck, up by Homosassa/Crystal River/Dunnelon/Inverness/etc....the Withlacoochee river is STILL swelling I believe...lots of flooding last week up there.