I’m a Fort Myers native. This storm was devastating because they didn’t issue evac orders until it was too late. It would have been too dangerous to leave. But our section of Florida doesn’t get hit with major hurricanes often, so a lot of people don’t take them seriously. Not to mention how many new, out of state people have moved here within the past 2 years that have no idea how to survive in a hurricane. It’s so so sad. A lot of people stayed in their houses and died because of that. Many people on the islands figured that their houses had survived through 50-70 years of major hurricanes, so this one wouldn’t be any different and they’d be safe. But they weren’t. They won’t even give us the accurate amount of people who died because they don’t want to look bad. It’s awful. Emergency responders were going around on airboats pulling bodies from trees and collapsed buildings for days after the storm. Many lost people will never be found. There’s still debris piled in the streets 2 months after the storm. Many people are living in condemned buildings because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. Our community is hurting, but we’re trying to heal. I just worry how much devastation the next storm will bring.
The good news is that, unless you’re Louisiana, the odds of getting hit dead-on by a storm like that anytime soon are pretty low. It will happen again, could even happen next year, but odds from year-to-year are fairly low. I hope you can heal from your trauma. I can’t even imagine the kind of existential dread that comes with having your whole town erased by the sky and the sea.
I don't understand why they're rebuilding FMB and Sanibel... Nature has given a very obvious warning that it's not a good place to build... IMO in 20 years or so it's all going to get washed away again. Best they could do is abandon the islands and replant all the mangroves they displaced.
@@billtr8516 ngl, here in Texas people don't believe that Florida storm isn't that bad, they say its fake news...of course it's the older folk who says/believes it, so im guessing Fox News made a fool of CNN's exaggerated weather news, and now FOX News watchers just don't believe in weather news anymore or something... idk, weird stuff man
I live on coast of Mississippi and the storm surge from Katrina was 28-30 feet and storm surges come in fast not some slow event. Katrina was very large, shallow coastal waters and took 12 hours to pass over us. My son was here in Katrina and then he moved to Fort Myers a few years ago. He evacuated 3 days prior as he was taking no chance but so many refused to leave, he even had a friend saying the news was fake and exaggerated! Unreal why people did not leave.
Most people I know didn’t leave bc landfall was predicted to be north of Tampa until it was too late. And one storm is not enough data to describe trends.
I still have the pictures my mother gave me, of the "salt kill" down on the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Pine trees, dead from submersion in brackish/salt water - they were a stark image showing just how high the waters rose in that area. (Gautier Mississippi for those who may want to know) My mother, stepfather, siblings, cousins - something like twelve people were sheltering in the same house and somehow survived the storm. Mother told me that she never, ever wanted to see standing water come within a foot of the kitchen windows ever again. The house didn't flood, by some kind of miracle (or by someone in the family finding a really clever way to temporarily water-proof the doors I guess). But they were without power for weeks of course, and only because my late grandfather was a former military man AND an absolute fanatic about preparedness did they manage to keep a generator running. I remember hearing from him that the garage was "stuffed to the gills" with buckets and bottles of water, gas cans, plastic crates lifting things up above the water level because they already knew the garage was GOING to get wet... But that image of the dead trees sticks with me more than any other piece of the story from my family in that time. Trees planted just after Camille - killed by another hurricane, and mute reminders of how terrifying nature can be. Oof.
@@g3user1usa actually no, they don't. And as has been pointed out elsewhere on this channel and lots of other places... a very large percentage of people CAN'T move away. Or be ready for the next storm either. Poor folks are already getting shafted when it comes to this kind of thing and that's not going to get better.
When I saw on RUclips the building where my business used to being inundated with 14 feet of water (Key Estero Shops) I knew this was worse than I thought it could ever be. I picked everything off of the floor believing that if it flooded, only a few feet of water could get in. I was wrong. “This can’t happen to us.” We lost a few friends without a chance to say goodby. We lost 95% of our customer base. Their buildings are just gone and if the walls remain, the interiors are empty. The storm surge pushed the contents into the back bay. Some people are planning on rebuilding their homes, a few realizing the futility of this are moving on. I fear that these powerful hurricanes are only going to become more frequent. More flooding is inevitable. Our Island Paradise has become what looks like a war zone. As the crews clean up the debris, the emptiness of the once crowded community is depressing. I’m sorry for rambling. We’ve decided to leave Southwest Florida. We can’t watch another hurricane come in and destroy our community. And another one certainly will.
Congratulations on make a tough but necessary decision. I'd recommend relocation to the Cumberland Plateau in eastern-central Tennessee. If you overlap every possible climate and natural disaster threat map (US), the Cumberland Plateau is generally safe from all of them. 2000 ft elevation, plentiful rain, generally safe from earthquake, wildfire, flooding and tornado threats; far enough inland so hurricanes aren't an issue. It's also, for now, a relatively inexpensive place to buy land or housing.
One of my family members was probably a customer of yours...they lived nearby, also lost everything. They're moving closer to Sarasota but looking to live more inland (I'm 24 miles inland)
@@garycampbell7846 In addition to programs on hurricane devastation, I've been watching docs about how Phoenix and Las Vegas, among other places in the Southwest, are running out of water for residential and agricultural applications. I hope you're not going from too much water to not enough water.
Hurricane Ian was the final straw for me to leave Florida. I've lived here for almost 20 years. When the hurricane forecast cone shows the hurricane heading right over your home, you really take stock of what's important. Luckily, my area did not get hit as bad as Ft. Myers. I've been through quite a few tropical storms and hurricanes, but Irma and Ian were the worst. I really hope Ft. Myers and Cape Coral rebound quickly. Beware of quiet-starting hurricane seasons. As anecdotal as it sounds, beware of the I storms in September on the Florida west coast. Evacuate early if you can, regardless of what your local government says. Hoping for the best for my fellow Floridians in 2023 and beyond.
Rebuilding these unprotectable areas is imho stupid. I am a German and we have 24feet and around 300feet wide dikes along the whole coastline at the North Sea.
That’s about right yeah. Our dikes are pretty darn solid, but water can exert enormous pressure and do so relentlessly. I’m kind of worried to see another 1953 event in the near future. For the people unfamiliar with Dutch history: this was a tragic event where our water defense line proved to be insufficient and much of our coastline and quite deep inland got flooded. Our defense has been reinforced significantly since; but it’s an arms race with climate change and there’s limits to how far you can push dike reinforcement :(
I live in Charleston. I work on the water. I have noticed that we get more king tides than we did 10 years ago but fun fact about Charleston is that a lot of it was built on marsh land and landfills. Part of the city should never have been built on and those parts are the ones that flood regularly the old parts of the city will flood but not that bad..
It’s funny how we teach kids stories where they explicitly say “so build your house on solid ground, not loose soil” and then our industrial economic system goes on to do the exact opposite.
I wonder how many times we will waste huge amounts of money rebuilding coastal areas until we come to our senses and start a managed retreat to higher ground inland?
Until it is underwater all the time. Miami is raising some roads and buildings because of the constantly rising water. While it may help in the short term. Eventually it will not make a difference.
It’s funny how even the people who talk about adaptation as the only necessary act rather than mitigation don’t discuss this. Most of them just call for sea walls, pipelines, and air conditioning. Simple easy ideas that they can imagine being mass produced easily. Not a life changing mass migration which drastically alters the situation. Because of course not, that fantasy is held because they can’t imagine losing their vulnerable home, so abandoning it doesn’t even factor for them. That’s why most dismiss climate refugees’ validity when it’s brought up as well.
When flood insurance rates on the coast get high enough, people will leave of their own accord. Unfortunately, government subsidies create a perverse incentive to live in flood-prone areas.
I lived on Pine Island. Lived…. The eye of the storm went right over my property. I evacuated without any question. However, many people I know refused to leave citing their previous experiences with hurricanes and a deep contempt where the media is concerned. They simply believed they knew better and were far more concerned about looters after the storm than the storm itself. No amount of warning fazed these people. Their experience from that moment forward however has been life changing to put it mildly. It was a week before I could get back on the island to see first hand the actual level of devastation. That experience alone was enough to conjure PTSD just being there. Couldn’t bear it. Unimaginable to me how these people lived through it, some of course did not. As the weeks have gone by, the aftermath, deplorable conditions and state of mind of those living this experience is a major, major concern. There is deep significant, and lasting if not permanent damage on many levels. This is compounded by the fact that there remains an inability by many to accept the fundamental truths regarding the future and years it will take to rebuild there. And rebuild certainly means something other than what many envision and are hoping/believing will be. Having only lived there a few years I suspect my own reaction to all of this seems particularly callous to those who see my reaction to the local narrative as unrealistic, but while I have experienced considerable financial loss, trauma and displacement, I can’t imagine living day to day in what is now in my view a disaster area replete with many hazards, toxic garbage and deeply questionable living conditions. Beyond the story of the storm, the story of the aftermath remains largely untold and is perhaps a story many find to uncomfortable to hear.
I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I agree with your decision. I'm in Bonita Springs, 5 miles inland, so I didn't evacuate, and my community was very lucky. While I understand why some didn't leave, I can't understand wanting to rebuild in devastated areas, nor staying through that very long process. This idea that it means you're strong is delusional to me.
I lived in Minnesota, not at all a costal location, a couple of decades ago when it actually got a hurricane! Its name was Otis. It had been a Pacific hurricane that made landfall in Mexico and travelled north growing ever weaker. Before dying completely, it merged with another storm and regained strength. By the time it hit the Twin Cities, it was mighty. It tore down trees and blocked roads. It was quite an experience.
@@davidmurray6176 Perhaps you want to check facts before you mock others. In both 1981 and 1987, the remnants of storm systems named "Otis" which originated in the Pacific, reached the upper midwest.
I feel like they need to start taking these new datapoints into account when catagorizing hurricanes. Simplifying these things down so a single number isn't easy but sometimes having a way to accurately communicate how dangerous these things are is more important than sticking to the historical catagory system. My heart goes out to everyone who had to deal with Ian. I helped a friend be a window to the outside when there was nothing but a low cell signal for texting, telling him the forcast and letting him and his family know what to expect if they planned to head out on the roads. I am glad I was able to give them that lifeline, I hope others were able to too.
When the data becomes good enough to model accurately, an updated scale will come. But it's not there yet and the only accurate measurements we can get through the life of a storm, currently, are sustained wind speed and central pressure. And of the two, only sustained wind speed provides a sort-of accurate translation to expected impacts. There is not yet a way to accurately forecast rainfall totals beyond the scope of several inches of deviance, or storm surge impacts basically at all, until it happens. And unfortunately, it's not the wind in a cyclone that kills and provides so much destruction. It's water. It's not there yet, but it will be one day.
It's surprising how many people don't own an emergency radio in Florida. I was able to listen to a live show throughout the storm giving me vital information. It also helps emotionally to have something other than the wind to listen to. It's great you were able to help because not being able to communicate to loved ones worried about you is tough.
what's wrong with the current system? you know the wind speed and can see the size and speed. if you're native to an area prone to them, you can gauge the risk. if you gamble and stay, you lost... or maybe it will miss you. it's not about knowing or changing the classification system. everyone doesnt have the ABILITY to leave. again, natives know this. for newcomers, if they are not willing to take in the info and decide for themselves what's best for them.... that's not worth changing the system
Before the storm arrives the powers that be should stop saying "storm surge" and say "FLOOD" instead. Most people can't understand or visualize "storm surge" They should say YOU ARE ARE GOING TO DROWN
we had 23 feet of surge in Biscayne Bay anchorage where we had lived on boats prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Our sailboat had rubbed against and scraped down 23 feet of a tree on a small island in the anchorage where we had tied it into the island like a spider web before the storm. 23 feet it had scraped off of that tree.
I measured it in our cove, and that is the height of our storm surge. It is not the exact same everywhere, and news just says general, not specific. I WAS THERE AND MEASURED IT. I know! :D@@charlessaunders1217
Biscayne Bay had 4-6 ft of surge. The highest recorded surge in Hurricane Andrew was 16.9 ft at the Burger King International Headquarters. That is data from the National Hurricane Center.
I literally MEASURED the scratch marks all the way down the tree from the sailboat banging against it during the storm -- it scratched 23 feet of tree. I know what I measured I WAS THERE.@@Dj0287
People have known for years about the dangers of moving to areas subject to flooding. Everyone in Florida that pays any attention to our storms has at least heard about what will happen to Tampa WHEN the roll of the dice brings the eye of a major storm into the bay on top of a tide. Yet the population continues to grow. People continue to believe that if the can't see the ocean from their front door they needn't worry, and political leaders at every level continue to allow almost unrestricted growth. I'm told that it is statistically certain (as certain as statistics get) that that storm is coming. We breathe a sigh of relief every year when storm season comes to an end but really it just means that next year there will be more people potentially affected, and more the years after that. I understand there was even a push recently to expand development in the "Big Bend" area, which is basically a wedge formed by the Gulf pushing in between the panhandle and the peninsula that would funnel any flood coming ashore there miles inland.
The deepest surge happened in a cyclone in Australia and it turned up with storm surge that was as deep as 42 ft meaning that it would be approximately nearly 13 meters tall. Basically it would send a two story house under water a two story house is 12 meters or 39 feet meaning anyone taller than 3 feet would have to stand on a two story house roof to be able to breath above this storm surge. I'm also gonna feature Typhoon Haiyan this was like the Asian version of Hurricane Katrina but WORSE! Haiyan's storm surge arrived in just MINUTES! Due to this and it being 195 mph in windspeed it took sadly 6000 lives it was a very tragic event for the Philippines.
I lost my house in hurricane Michael and I’m disappointed it wasn’t mentioned. 19’ storm surge in Mexico Beach and it took my neighbors house off its foundation and over their privacy fence to the middle of the road. Little towns with less than 10,000 in population get forgotten quickly after the storm.
I agree! I live in FWB, an hour & a half west of Mexico Beach, and remember how terribly destructive Hurricane Michael was for that entire area! It looked like Homestead FL after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (I had family-friends go through Andrew). It wasn't but a few months later when everyone, except those in the Panhandle, forgot all about Hurricane Michael!! So I am in agreement with you about being disappointed they didn't mention Hurricane Michael.
Grew up on the beach and always feared a storm like this for all the reasons they cite. Something they didn't mention: Max elevation on the island is 3 feet, and it's just a barrier island - a glorified sandbar that when not locked down with concrete will move/reform in an event like this. Areas like this have no chance against a big storm/surge. Anything not built to stringent hurricane code will be destroyed and the island itself will reshape as is its wont. And that's exactly what happened. The flyover b roll footage @ 4:21 lands right on a place I used to live/work - the little two story building next to the orange condo. "Tiki", for short. It's gone save for some support posts and small section of wall. In its place, a large gouge cut into the sand running from the waterline to the street. Our life on these shores is a roulette game, basically.
It's also worth noting that Katrina was at one point a Category 5 storm. So not only did it have a large wind field, it had also built up a sizeable storm surge that didn't diminish when it weakened to a Category 3.
These news outlets need to revisit the devastated areas a week, a month and a year later. Interview the same people and see how they're doing, how the rebuilding if any is going. I always wonder what happened to them and how they coped with a life-changing situation, whether their insurance companies or the govt came through for them. The news always focuses on the 'new' disasters - it needs to revisit last year's disasters.
Why, yes! I can share my storm surge story, lol. We live in North Port FL. We stayed in our house. We didn't know till the last minute that it might be a Cat 4 hurricane. Our bad. So cut to the end of the hurricane...open the front door and - whoa! A foot of water in the garage ( none in the house, thank you God ) and my car drowned in the driveway. We used our kayaks for about 5/6 days. It was interesting. 3 huge pine trees down in the backyard, right thru the lanai roof. But not the house roof. Again, thank you God. Not our first hurricane by any means, but certainly the worst.
The storm surge in Mobile County, Alabama from Katrina was 20 feet on the southern coast to 12 feet in the city. There were literal boats in trees. People in coastal areas didn’t have power for nearly a month. Katrina’s impact was much larger than this video shows.
Most people in Florida refuse to evacuate because police surround the area and will not let you back in so you can minimize the damage to your house or apartment. I evacuated three hurricanes ago and will never do it again because I was prevented from going home for two days. Angry residents had their cars backed up in lines that were miles long. There was no reason for it. When I was finally allowed to return home, there were no hazards any different from the ones I had been driving through outside the police lines and no sign that things had been any different here. They know that they can barricade off parts of the city by blocking bridges and other choke points. They live for that crap like its some sort of military op. People who die because they refuse to evacuate are refusing to go because they do not want to be prevented from returning. If you want people to evacuate, announce that they will be allowed to return right after the storm or accept responsibility for killing them.
I just don't get it. Why would you purposefully live in a place that routinely has major disasters that wipe out entire communities? It happens every year and its only going to get worse... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!
5:30 this phenomenon is exactly why many people doubt that only around 7,000 died during Typhoon Haiyan. Rumors still persist to this day that the real death toll was as high as 22,000.
I live in a Northern Midwest I feel like I learn something every time I watch one of your videos everybody is so informative please keep doing this I like watching and learning thank you
You can hide from the wind but you can't run from the water. Fort myers Beach now is completely cleaned up and will experience a building boom. Newer houses survived without major damage
Why do people want to keep living in places where hurricanes ruin everything multiple times every year? And for thousands of years, if not longer. You think it's maybe time to move inland where that's not quite an issue?
It’s sad to think that storm surge is only just now getting the attention it needs. It shouldn’t have to take a Katrina, an Ike, a Sandy, or an Ian for people to realize that water is the most deadly and destructive part of a hurricane.
I had moved to Fort Myers two years prior to Ian to help my parents with the restaurant they had bought on Sanibel. While our apartment in Fort Myers was safe from flooding due to the complex having amazing draining system, we still lost the restaurant. The devastation Ian left is really difficult to see. I only got to see a little bit of it in person before my husband and I moved back north, but I've seen plenty of videos covering it and my heart sinks every time. I was born and raised in Ohio, never had to deal with tornadoes or hurricanes, and 2022 made me experience both. 🙃
What I can’t fathom: after Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Ian… it’s so obvious most hurricane damage isn’t wind-related. So why is the main metric of hurricane strength still windspeed? NOAA can’t figure out why people don’t evacuate? They think it’s just about wind. Because that’s the rating tgat gets repeated & repeated & repeated. Want to save lives? Start rating strength on a combo of pressure, windfield, wind speed, forward motion, and get graphic about storm surge, eg, not just “15 feet,” but “if you live in this area, your cars will be swept away. If you live in this area, your house could be reduced to rubble” and so on.
I was stationed near NOLA back in 2005, got my hands on a DVD copy of some people riding out Katrina (hurricane party) at a local motel in Waveland MS, and the surge is on full display. I uploaded it here, if anyone is interested.
This is an important film for those who continue to deny, ignore, the effects of climate change, but for every bit of devastation and disruption we have pictured and measured, there is so much more happening that humanity can't see, hasn't documented nor measured. As surplus energy is added to the planet, most of it absorbed by the oceans, it changes the chemistry and physics of the only home we have, and these are changes humanity has never adapted to. With this surplus energy comes increasing dynamics and risk for very bad things to happen to unaware people. We have come only so far in understanding our circumstances, considering the thousands of relevant research reports published annually about the profound effects of climate change. It is a real tragedy, already that we will not be able to stop the continued warming for those being born today. That opportunity has passed ; this ship sailed about 30 years ago. Global food supplies are now being detrimentally affected. The nutrition of our food is also dropping. Plants are having a harder time making proteins and fats, like for seed production, as carbon dioxide increases. The cold is necessary for delicious fatty fishes and to set fruit on apple trees. Pests and weeds become stronger. These changes are accelerating, with exponential growth. The costs will rise until we no longer have the ability to eat and breed. This is not the time to plug your ears, eyes, and say, "la la la, I won't listen to you."
Given the increase in coastal development around the world, the increase in weather extremes and intensification of rainfall events I would be very interested in finding out if anyone is researching just how much pollution, chemical waste, building materials and other debris is being dumped into the worlds oceans. When you see time and again even at considerable distances inland fleets of automobiles and chunks of houses being washed down thoroughfares or swept away in violent river currents you know it has to end up somewhere.
Funny thing, waste water treatments plants on the east coast of the US are specced to deal with this exact problem. These storms can push water pollutants deep from their source and dump it thousands of miles away. Mercury levels are often much higher after the passage of a hurricane due to the hurricane collecting it from illegal gold mining in africa that uses mercury to extract gold. That mercury gets caught up in the circulation of water around the storm and than gets dumped when it makes landfall. This process is also likely occurring for pollutants we don't even test or measure for, these storms can really dredge up and mix together all sorts of horrible thing.
@@zelkuta Not only that but the volume of debris like household insulation and roofing, petroleum products, nitrates and pesticides from farm fields....
@@deepashtray5605 trolling accusations demonstrate your inability to understand a sarcastic response to folk such as yourself who infer the ideology you do. I refer to your rebuttal as intellectual laziness.
I'm in another continent, brothers and sisters, but what I've observed from contemporary hurricane experiences all over the world, is that the expression 'a once in a _______ (lifetime, 100, 1000 years) is out of the window now. Bad things happen and can repeat itself sooner some time. Like Rita following Katrina. So, take refuge as much as you can every single time. Love and strength to y'all 💜
The problem with Florida home Insurance is how to use the money. A apartment building in Kissimmee Florida had 5+ feet of water in the bottom floor apartments. It will flood again and it is a death trap at 5+ feet. But no they rebuild. 3 Ft. is ponding not flooding. It's far from the only case
I have lived in a community of big wave surfers in Hawaii for forty years. These top watermen fly to big wave events around the planet, to all the known spots that break big. They know the underwater topography of all these spots, and what the wave will be like at every buoy height recording and every storm direction. Watching the weather is something they do every day. Scientists should add these guys to their studies of bathymetry.
Cyclone Mahina in 1899 Australia must have been so incredibly powerful to generate a storm surge like that. Barometric presssure at the time was recorded at about 880 hPa/mb, which the captain who recorded that on his boat thought was a error as we didn’t think that sort of pressure was even possible back then. Nowadays we know that on rare occasions (Typhoon Tip, Hurricane Patricia, Hurricane Wilma, Typhoon Haiyan, Cyclone Monica) these storms can indeed become so intense that they end up breaking under 900. The western pacific seems the most likely to generate these extremely powerful storms, though that doesn’t mean other basins can’t have freak storms that can’t also do it. Cyclone Mahina, Hurricane Patricia (thank goodness that storm weakened prior to landfall) and Typhoon Tip are all such storms. Tip in particular was terrifying due to how enormous it was. Though, you don’t need to have a massive storm to cause widespread damage and death, as Cyclone Tracy which hit Darwin Australia proves. In fact, Tracy’s small size is likely the main reason why it was able to hit Darwin as a severe cyclone as if it were any larger, Bathurst Island would have weakened it. The small size allowed it to sneak in between Australia’s landmass and the Island without losing any intensity. Tropical Cyclones are so interesting but also so terrifying.
@Mae given the circumstances, they should've there's also storm surge which they should've considered considering that they live at sea level a storm surge warning is basically an evacuation alert if you pay attention to any information
Look at Typhoon Hiyan (sorry for spelling) super typhoon channeled huge storm surge into a funnel area of the Philippines. Tremendous storm surge and Australia had one much higher, WOW!
This ocean floor mapping is going to be a massive boon not just for forecasting surges but also when determining where to place coastal defenses and what kind to best mitigate potential damage.
I live in Fort Myers, scary stuff but unfortunately I feel it will only get worse . Imagine superstorms in the future that will mandate ALL of Florida to evacuate 🥶🥶🥶
We can't for sure say that there's a top end wind speed for storms but for the most part it's actually considered to be about 190 mph on wind speed but of course there have been a few exceptions but they are very few. most of those exceptions have actually happened over in Asia. Except for the very very top dog of them all which is hurricane Patricia in 2015 in the eastern Pacific. Although I still think that the strongest storm ever in regards to its pressure Being the lowest was super typhoon tip in 1979. I think typhoon tip still reigns supreme as the lowest pressure ever recorded in a storm even though it's winds were not as high as patricia's. Hurricane Patricia holds the record for highest wind speed recorded typhoon tip holds the record for the lowest pressure ever recorded. I've been a hurricane chaser from home since 2004 and I've noticed a lot more category fives that happen lately in a lot more storms that love to stall and sit in one spot for a while like hurricane Harvey and hurricane Dorian is the mother of all stalling storms being that it reached 185 mph and then stalled on the Bahamas for over 24 hours.... that's beyond ridiculous
This just goes to show how inadequate the Saffir Simpson has become. Ike was "just" a 2 when it hit Galveston, yet it had one of the highest storm surges because it was such a large storm. Angle of entry is also a much bigger part of the equation. Irma was a very strong and large storm when it it SW Florida, but the angle of entry...more parallel to the coast while also weakening did not cause near the damage that Ian did by striking Ft Myers Bay at almost a perpendicular angle. We need to revamp how we classify these storms. People become complacent when they hear it is a 1 or a 2 and don't evacuate. The West Coast of FL, along with much of the Gulf Coast is very susceptible to surge.
FL native. My grandparents and dad were in the '28 storm and Labor Day storm in '35 ( grand dad helped recover bodies in the Keys. It was horrific ). People shouldn't wait for official evacuation orders. They should be aware of where they live, the elevation etc. And get TF off beaches, barrier islands, etc. Hide from the wind but run from the water.
And it's not just the coastal regions, look at what happened all up and down the St. Johns river there was extreme flooding there for weeks after Ian that displacing 1000's of people. 70% of Florida will be a sandbar at low tide by the end of this century and many barrier islands and coastal regions have 10 to 20 years left at a best case scenario.
I live about 30 miles from the Galveston Island seawall in Texas. But I only live about 12 miles from the water in Galveston Bay. I'm happy that I will inherit a free house from my dad, but I'm not happy about its hurricane-prone location. I'm thinking about moving inland to the San Antonio area.
The only experience I've had that's remotely similar to a hurricane is the 2020 Iowa Derecho. That was quite an experience and while we were fine and didn't suffer any damage (a few limbs came down, but they were small), it's not an experience I want to repeat. The storm itself wasn't the worst - we knew we were safe as we were in the basement of a large cement building (we were at the dr's office when the storm came through), but we were worried about our cats at home and I was texting my mother trying to get her to take it seriously (she watched it from the kitchen window apparently). My parents and my brother had a ton of damage cuz they live out in rural areas where there's no buildings to slow the wind down. The worst part for us was having to go without electricity for almost an entire week. At least it came through in August instead of January - dealing with the heat was annoying, but doable. We have an electric stove and don't have a grill, so we couldn't cook anything. We lost all the food in the freezer/fridge as well (no cooler either). And fortunately, my partner wasn't yet on dialysis - he started later that year. Manual peritoneal dialysis is doable, but it's got its issues and we definitely wouldn't have had the manual bag supplies for an entire week of dialysis on hand (we still don't). And considering we had no idea when the power would return, we probably would have resorted to rationing - which isn't good.
We still need to fix our fence where the two trees fell. A friend and his family are finally back in their house after the top story was bisected by a tree.
Was no electricity after Francis for three months, poles burned to ground, pets at hotel 3 months, three holes in roof from tornado,neighbors front and back of us lost roof,tornado bounced I. Us..Allstate ignored us 9/4/04 to 1/29/05, check 1/10 if what was owed after paying them 54 years never a claim . Ignored insurance commissioner demands. About $488,000 under insured, by bad agent
Maiya, You are a brilliant speaker. Your information is well researched, which makes it informative. I have relatives in Miami and up near FL panhandle on the Atlantic side. I have concerns about their safety as we go forward into this developing climate change. Thank you.
One thing I remember was also the low pressure inside the storm - helping to get a higher water bulb. Here near the River most old house are build on pillars ... maybe this areas have to change to this also - let 2-3 meter under the house where the water passes and maybe only the car is gone.
I definitely wouldn't like to see what would happen if an extratropical storm of such magnitude were to hit the Bay of Fundy... The tides there are already the greatest in the world, I can't possibly imaging what would happen if even more water was blown inland.
Just don’t insure theses areas. If folk’s want to risk it, fine. This research will provide a guideline map for assessing risk. Tax dollars should not be used! I have always wondered what part of ‘flood plain’ is ambiguous. That is what the state of Florida has become and it isn’t getting better.
Hopefully more people will realize the incredibly bad investment of building ocean front cities and towns and begin the movement of our cities before it's too late. How many rebuilds before we move say New Orleans or Miami?
Another factor is changing conditions along the coast line. I live in the Humboldt Bay area of California, an area more prone to Tsunamis than Hurricanes, and our relationship with sea water is changing constantly due to erosion and subsidence (likely due to tectonics).
when was the last tsunamis Nor cal had? 300 years ago? a smaller one in 1946... but these are created by the subduction earthquake fault and not caused by anything else... if you feel a 7 or better living on the nor cal coast might be a good idea to head inland. 2 Tsunamis in 300 years does not equate to making a region "prone" to anything but rather rare outliers. Coastal erosion has been happening since creation, unless you're living on an island with an active volcano
Ian was headed for our Palm Harbor Dunedin area, then, in the last 12 hours, it veered south. I did not realize our 24 feet of elevation might not be enough, but I would put the chances of getting hit with 24 ft of storm surge at about 1 in 1000 this half of the century. By the second half, my Pluvicopia concept should start to mitigate and reverse sea level rise.
As a young person in 2022 I almost want something catastrophic to happen to make people snap out of their greed and delusion. I should probably stop consuming stuff like this, but knowing whats going on makes me unbelievably angry. Fuck everything.
As an older person in 2023, let me say it isn't just greed and delusion that's causing our situation. That's the root of it overall, yes. But it's also a situation where desperation plays a large part. Those with the power to change things are powerful enough never to be directly affected (not really anyway) and may even profit from these events. Everyone else, who don't have power, must play by their game. Hence, where the desperation comes in. It's easy to say, "wake up! Change things!" But it is much harder to actually do when it means you are going to loose everything with possibly nothing to show for it! Especially when you live paycheck to paycheck, just trying to get by, survive and keep your family above ground from week to week. It's hard for people to put the little bit they have at risk, especially when they have such a small amount of power to actually change things on an individual level. Collectively we are strong, but on our own we crumble. In that regard, your anger could be just as dangerous as the greed because it risks causing division between you and others. That division perpetuates the problem, rather than fixing it, when it is directed at the wrong things. However, If there's one thing I think can save us, it's how connected "Zoomers" can be. We've never had a global generation before but they (possibly you?) have already managed to have dramatic effects on our world, and with effing memes no less. XD The potential power they can collectively wield if they learned to harness it is.... frighteningly impressive in it's possibilities.
7:26 god bless those folks; going through that and still making sure they kept their dogs safe. As a dog day I can totally relate. Our pups are our family, period. I’m grateful the couple survived but even more grateful they’d survived along with their dogs.
Ian was my first hurricane. I live in Fort Myers Shores and we had flooding up river. One house had a boat on its porch a few streets over from my house. I luckily didn’t get any damage and only lost power for a little over a week.
But it's not just the wind blowing the water into shore. That can certainly be a contributing factor, But ultimately what causes storm surge is the low pressure in the center of the storm. This creates a bulge around the eye of the storm.
I evacuated Savannah, GA for Floyd & NE New Jersey for Sandy. No damage for me either time, but some of my neighbors, just a few blocks over, didn’t fare so well. Even though we were a couple of miles inland. I’m now on the Florida Panhandle. We didn’t catch the worst of Ian here, but I’m sure a big one will arrive eventually. I have 2 hard rules based on my experiences. Never live on a barrier island, nature created it as a barrier for a reason & ALWAYS evacuate, insurance can replace anything except your life.
You know…. I don’t believe peninsulas like FL will submerged from the coastline in, but in fact entirely all at once because of the type of porous soils like limestone. Sea water could easily enter the aquifers & with that many lakes it’s easy to connect them together.
Correction "Hurricane" Sandy was not technically a Hurricane and it made Labdfall in New JERSEY (not New York), and the impacts to the New JERSEY coast were far more than New York
Yep, littoral coastlines typically accrete over periods of milder weather and erode in storm conditions that's when old seawalls, ship wrecks and other structures re-emerge. Happens all the time
I'm typing this a few hours before Hurricane Idalia will be coming ashore in Florida in August 2023 - and this is just months after Hurricane Ian, shown in this video. Idalia will be producing a storm surge as well, and a handful of people interviewed on TV have said they're not evacuating. If these people survive, I'm sure they will painfully regret that decision.
what is annoying is sciences failure to connect solar weather with our regular weather. Solar scientist knows if you have a solar storm that adds a electromagnetic charge to a hurricane or Typhoon it will make the storm much worse. Which is what happened with Ian. The night before Ian rapidly grew we had a solar event that was strong enough to cause auroras all the way down in Des Moines Iowa. What is scarry, we are starting to have stronger electromagnetic events because we are in the middle of magnetic pole reversal on earth, and we are going to continue to get stronger and stronger storm over the next few years that could definitely makes any type of weather worse on earth. The best solution to be move all house away from the coastlines. Leave the coast lines to as National and State parks with Movable businesses and Rv housing.
There’s also realistic solutions that don’t require half the US to move inland and abandon all ports and infrastructure (and force people in wildfire states or in the Colorado River basin) to move?). My home in New Orleans is raised several feet (on concrete blocks) above Katrina flood levels and I have solar backup power. We have a much better flood control system that (hopefully) won’t fail like in a storm even stronger than Katrina. My house might honestly probably safer from global warming’s effects than most because I’m already addressing it. A lot of coastal cities also aren’t there because of vacation homes. They’re industrial and/or port cities that the nation can’t simply abandon. On top of that, many inland cities are the size they are because that’s what their water supply and geography allow. We can’t just all move to Phoenix or to wildfire zones.
I wish FEMA would focus more on building structures that are adapted to hurricanes rather than paying for structures that support fast economic growth but only stand until the next hurricane.
I’m a Fort Myers native. This storm was devastating because they didn’t issue evac orders until it was too late. It would have been too dangerous to leave. But our section of Florida doesn’t get hit with major hurricanes often, so a lot of people don’t take them seriously. Not to mention how many new, out of state people have moved here within the past 2 years that have no idea how to survive in a hurricane. It’s so so sad. A lot of people stayed in their houses and died because of that. Many people on the islands figured that their houses had survived through 50-70 years of major hurricanes, so this one wouldn’t be any different and they’d be safe. But they weren’t. They won’t even give us the accurate amount of people who died because they don’t want to look bad. It’s awful. Emergency responders were going around on airboats pulling bodies from trees and collapsed buildings for days after the storm. Many lost people will never be found. There’s still debris piled in the streets 2 months after the storm. Many people are living in condemned buildings because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. Our community is hurting, but we’re trying to heal. I just worry how much devastation the next storm will bring.
The good news is that, unless you’re Louisiana, the odds of getting hit dead-on by a storm like that anytime soon are pretty low. It will happen again, could even happen next year, but odds from year-to-year are fairly low. I hope you can heal from your trauma. I can’t even imagine the kind of existential dread that comes with having your whole town erased by the sky and the sea.
Thanks to Governor Desatan for not issuing a timely evac order
I don't understand why they're rebuilding FMB and Sanibel... Nature has given a very obvious warning that it's not a good place to build...
IMO in 20 years or so it's all going to get washed away again. Best they could do is abandon the islands and replant all the mangroves they displaced.
@@billtr8516 ngl, here in Texas people don't believe that Florida storm isn't that bad, they say its fake news...of course it's the older folk who says/believes it, so im guessing Fox News made a fool of CNN's exaggerated weather news, and now FOX News watchers just don't believe in weather news anymore or something... idk, weird stuff man
@@Pfyzer Just watch a live at the time video of FMB washing away a 2+ story house, storm surge was 22'
I live on coast of Mississippi and the storm surge from Katrina was 28-30 feet and storm surges come in fast not some slow event. Katrina was very large, shallow coastal waters and took 12 hours to pass over us. My son was here in Katrina and then he moved to Fort Myers a few years ago. He evacuated 3 days prior as he was taking no chance but so many refused to leave, he even had a friend saying the news was fake and exaggerated! Unreal why people did not leave.
Did the 'fake news' person also vote for Trump twice? Darwin award winner!
Most people I know didn’t leave bc landfall was predicted to be north of Tampa until it was too late. And one storm is not enough data to describe trends.
I still have the pictures my mother gave me, of the "salt kill" down on the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Pine trees, dead from submersion in brackish/salt water - they were a stark image showing just how high the waters rose in that area. (Gautier Mississippi for those who may want to know) My mother, stepfather, siblings, cousins - something like twelve people were sheltering in the same house and somehow survived the storm. Mother told me that she never, ever wanted to see standing water come within a foot of the kitchen windows ever again. The house didn't flood, by some kind of miracle (or by someone in the family finding a really clever way to temporarily water-proof the doors I guess). But they were without power for weeks of course, and only because my late grandfather was a former military man AND an absolute fanatic about preparedness did they manage to keep a generator running. I remember hearing from him that the garage was "stuffed to the gills" with buckets and bottles of water, gas cans, plastic crates lifting things up above the water level because they already knew the garage was GOING to get wet...
But that image of the dead trees sticks with me more than any other piece of the story from my family in that time. Trees planted just after Camille - killed by another hurricane, and mute reminders of how terrifying nature can be. Oof.
I was there right afterwards helping friends and noticed all the dead trees and vegetation too.
But they still live there, and are ready for the next superstore they can ride out... maybe.😅
@@g3user1usa actually no, they don't. And as has been pointed out elsewhere on this channel and lots of other places... a very large percentage of people CAN'T move away. Or be ready for the next storm either. Poor folks are already getting shafted when it comes to this kind of thing and that's not going to get better.
When I saw on RUclips the building where my business used to being inundated with 14 feet of water (Key Estero Shops) I knew this was worse than I thought it could ever be. I picked everything off of the floor believing that if it flooded, only a few feet of water could get in. I was wrong. “This can’t happen to us.”
We lost a few friends without a chance to say goodby. We lost 95% of our customer base. Their buildings are just gone and if the walls remain, the interiors are empty. The storm surge pushed the contents into the back bay.
Some people are planning on rebuilding their homes, a few realizing the futility of this are moving on.
I fear that these powerful hurricanes are only going to become more frequent. More flooding is inevitable. Our Island Paradise has become what looks like a war zone. As the crews clean up the debris, the emptiness of the once crowded community is depressing.
I’m sorry for rambling. We’ve decided to leave Southwest Florida. We can’t watch another hurricane come in and destroy our community. And another one certainly will.
Congratulations on make a tough but necessary decision. I'd recommend relocation to the Cumberland Plateau in eastern-central Tennessee. If you overlap every possible climate and natural disaster threat map (US), the Cumberland Plateau is generally safe from all of them. 2000 ft elevation, plentiful rain, generally safe from earthquake, wildfire, flooding and tornado threats; far enough inland so hurricanes aren't an issue. It's also, for now, a relatively inexpensive place to buy land or housing.
@@signalfire6691 Thanks for the advice. We’re going to Las Vegas. There’s so much more opportunity there. I’m not ready to retire!
One of my family members was probably a customer of yours...they lived nearby, also lost everything. They're moving closer to Sarasota but looking to live more inland (I'm 24 miles inland)
@@SRQmoviemaker what’s their names? It’s a small island and I want to thank my peeps for the support these past 15 years.
@@garycampbell7846 In addition to programs on hurricane devastation, I've been watching docs about how Phoenix and Las Vegas, among other places in the Southwest, are running out of water for residential and agricultural applications. I hope you're not going from too much water to not enough water.
Hurricane Ian was the final straw for me to leave Florida. I've lived here for almost 20 years. When the hurricane forecast cone shows the hurricane heading right over your home, you really take stock of what's important. Luckily, my area did not get hit as bad as Ft. Myers. I've been through quite a few tropical storms and hurricanes, but Irma and Ian were the worst. I really hope Ft. Myers and Cape Coral rebound quickly. Beware of quiet-starting hurricane seasons. As anecdotal as it sounds, beware of the I storms in September on the Florida west coast. Evacuate early if you can, regardless of what your local government says. Hoping for the best for my fellow Floridians in 2023 and beyond.
Rebuilding these unprotectable areas is imho stupid. I am a German and we have 24feet and around 300feet wide dikes along the whole coastline at the North Sea.
Where did you move to?
I live in the Netherlands, and a lot have been done to protect the country against storm surges. It’s an ongoing battle.
you whole country is supposed to be underwater in normal days bro
@@Pfyzer bro you don't know what you're talking about bro
bro?
@@Emma.S. 😁
That’s about right yeah. Our dikes are pretty darn solid, but water can exert enormous pressure and do so relentlessly. I’m kind of worried to see another 1953 event in the near future. For the people unfamiliar with Dutch history: this was a tragic event where our water defense line proved to be insufficient and much of our coastline and quite deep inland got flooded. Our defense has been reinforced significantly since; but it’s an arms race with climate change and there’s limits to how far you can push dike reinforcement :(
I live in Charleston. I work on the water. I have noticed that we get more king tides than we did 10 years ago but fun fact about Charleston is that a lot of it was built on marsh land and landfills. Part of the city should never have been built on and those parts are the ones that flood regularly the old parts of the city will flood but not that bad..
It’s funny how we teach kids stories where they explicitly say “so build your house on solid ground, not loose soil” and then our industrial economic system goes on to do the exact opposite.
I wonder how many times we will waste huge amounts of money rebuilding coastal areas until we come to our senses and start a managed retreat to higher ground inland?
‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
Well. How much money do we all spend on fossils fuels and animal foods we eat ? Do the simple MATH !
Until it is underwater all the time. Miami is raising some roads and buildings because of the constantly rising water. While it may help in the short term. Eventually it will not make a difference.
It’s funny how even the people who talk about adaptation as the only necessary act rather than mitigation don’t discuss this.
Most of them just call for sea walls, pipelines, and air conditioning. Simple easy ideas that they can imagine being mass produced easily. Not a life changing mass migration which drastically alters the situation.
Because of course not, that fantasy is held because they can’t imagine losing their vulnerable home, so abandoning it doesn’t even factor for them.
That’s why most dismiss climate refugees’ validity when it’s brought up as well.
When flood insurance rates on the coast get high enough, people will leave of their own accord. Unfortunately, government subsidies create a perverse incentive to live in flood-prone areas.
I lived on Pine Island. Lived…. The eye of the storm went right over my property. I evacuated without any question. However, many people I know refused to leave citing their previous experiences with hurricanes and a deep contempt where the media is concerned. They simply believed they knew better and were far more concerned about looters after the storm than the storm itself.
No amount of warning fazed these people. Their experience from that moment forward however has been life changing to put it mildly. It was a week before I could get back on the island to see first hand the actual level of devastation. That experience alone was enough to conjure PTSD just being there. Couldn’t bear it. Unimaginable to me how these people lived through it, some of course did not.
As the weeks have gone by, the aftermath, deplorable conditions and state of mind of those living this experience is a major, major concern. There is deep significant, and lasting if not permanent damage on many levels. This is compounded by the fact that there remains an inability by many to accept the fundamental truths regarding the future and years it will take to rebuild there. And rebuild certainly means something other than what many envision and are hoping/believing will be.
Having only lived there a few years I suspect my own reaction to all of this seems particularly callous to those who see my reaction to the local narrative as unrealistic, but while I have experienced considerable financial loss, trauma and displacement, I can’t imagine living day to day in what is now in my view a disaster area replete with many hazards, toxic garbage and deeply questionable living conditions.
Beyond the story of the storm, the story of the aftermath remains largely untold and is perhaps a story many find to uncomfortable to hear.
I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I agree with your decision. I'm in Bonita Springs, 5 miles inland, so I didn't evacuate, and my community was very lucky. While I understand why some didn't leave, I can't understand wanting to rebuild in devastated areas, nor staying through that very long process. This idea that it means you're strong is delusional to me.
I lived in Minnesota, not at all a costal location, a couple of decades ago when it actually got a hurricane! Its name was Otis. It had been a Pacific hurricane that made landfall in Mexico and travelled north growing ever weaker. Before dying completely, it merged with another storm and regained strength. By the time it hit the Twin Cities, it was mighty. It tore down trees and blocked roads. It was quite an experience.
😵
hurricane in Minnesota. I bet your 12yo. Lmao!
@@davidmurray6176 Perhaps you want to check facts before you mock others. In both 1981 and 1987, the remnants of storm systems named "Otis" which originated in the Pacific, reached the upper midwest.
I feel like they need to start taking these new datapoints into account when catagorizing hurricanes. Simplifying these things down so a single number isn't easy but sometimes having a way to accurately communicate how dangerous these things are is more important than sticking to the historical catagory system.
My heart goes out to everyone who had to deal with Ian. I helped a friend be a window to the outside when there was nothing but a low cell signal for texting, telling him the forcast and letting him and his family know what to expect if they planned to head out on the roads. I am glad I was able to give them that lifeline, I hope others were able to too.
I think that in the very long term, there may be a sub-classification of Category 5 to denote a higher intensity.
When the data becomes good enough to model accurately, an updated scale will come. But it's not there yet and the only accurate measurements we can get through the life of a storm, currently, are sustained wind speed and central pressure. And of the two, only sustained wind speed provides a sort-of accurate translation to expected impacts. There is not yet a way to accurately forecast rainfall totals beyond the scope of several inches of deviance, or storm surge impacts basically at all, until it happens.
And unfortunately, it's not the wind in a cyclone that kills and provides so much destruction. It's water. It's not there yet, but it will be one day.
It's surprising how many people don't own an emergency radio in Florida. I was able to listen to a live show throughout the storm giving me vital information. It also helps emotionally to have something other than the wind to listen to. It's great you were able to help because not being able to communicate to loved ones worried about you is tough.
what's wrong with the current system? you know the wind speed and can see the size and speed. if you're native to an area prone to them, you can gauge the risk. if you gamble and stay, you lost... or maybe it will miss you. it's not about knowing or changing the classification system. everyone doesnt have the ABILITY to leave. again, natives know this. for newcomers, if they are not willing to take in the info and decide for themselves what's best for them.... that's not worth changing the system
Before the storm arrives the powers that be should stop saying "storm surge" and say "FLOOD" instead.
Most people can't understand or visualize "storm surge"
They should say
YOU ARE ARE GOING TO DROWN
These videos are always so very informative, interesting and well done. You and your team are doing a really great job.
we had 23 feet of surge in Biscayne Bay anchorage where we had lived on boats prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Our sailboat had rubbed against and scraped down 23 feet of a tree on a small island in the anchorage where we had tied it into the island like a spider web before the storm. 23 feet it had scraped off of that tree.
WOW
Andrews storm surge wasn’t that height
I measured it in our cove, and that is the height of our storm surge. It is not the exact same everywhere, and news just says general, not specific. I WAS THERE AND MEASURED IT. I know! :D@@charlessaunders1217
Biscayne Bay had 4-6 ft of surge. The highest recorded surge in Hurricane Andrew was 16.9 ft at the Burger King International Headquarters. That is data from the National Hurricane Center.
I literally MEASURED the scratch marks all the way down the tree from the sailboat banging against it during the storm -- it scratched 23 feet of tree. I know what I measured I WAS THERE.@@Dj0287
People have known for years about the dangers of moving to areas subject to flooding. Everyone in Florida that pays any attention to our storms has at least heard about what will happen to Tampa WHEN the roll of the dice brings the eye of a major storm into the bay on top of a tide. Yet the population continues to grow. People continue to believe that if the can't see the ocean from their front door they needn't worry, and political leaders at every level continue to allow almost unrestricted growth. I'm told that it is statistically certain (as certain as statistics get) that that storm is coming. We breathe a sigh of relief every year when storm season comes to an end but really it just means that next year there will be more people potentially affected, and more the years after that. I understand there was even a push recently to expand development in the "Big Bend" area, which is basically a wedge formed by the Gulf pushing in between the panhandle and the peninsula that would funnel any flood coming ashore there miles inland.
Tampa lucky asf Ian turned its path
The deepest surge happened in a cyclone in Australia and it turned up with storm surge that was as deep as 42 ft meaning that it would be approximately nearly 13 meters tall. Basically it would send a two story house under water a two story house is 12 meters or 39 feet meaning anyone taller than 3 feet would have to stand on a two story house roof to be able to breath above this storm surge. I'm also gonna feature Typhoon Haiyan this was like the Asian version of Hurricane Katrina but WORSE! Haiyan's storm surge arrived in just MINUTES! Due to this and it being 195 mph in windspeed it took sadly 6000 lives it was a very tragic event for the Philippines.
I lost my house in hurricane Michael and I’m disappointed it wasn’t mentioned. 19’ storm surge in Mexico Beach and it took my neighbors house off its foundation and over their privacy fence to the middle of the road. Little towns with less than 10,000 in population get forgotten quickly after the storm.
I agree! I live in FWB, an hour & a half west of Mexico Beach, and remember how terribly destructive Hurricane Michael was for that entire area! It looked like Homestead FL after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (I had family-friends go through Andrew). It wasn't but a few months later when everyone, except those in the Panhandle, forgot all about Hurricane Michael!! So I am in agreement with you about being disappointed they didn't mention Hurricane Michael.
The fact that they survived with two dogs like that is amazing
Grew up on the beach and always feared a storm like this for all the reasons they cite. Something they didn't mention: Max elevation on the island is 3 feet, and it's just a barrier island - a glorified sandbar that when not locked down with concrete will move/reform in an event like this. Areas like this have no chance against a big storm/surge. Anything not built to stringent hurricane code will be destroyed and the island itself will reshape as is its wont. And that's exactly what happened.
The flyover b roll footage @ 4:21 lands right on a place I used to live/work - the little two story building next to the orange condo. "Tiki", for short. It's gone save for some support posts and small section of wall. In its place, a large gouge cut into the sand running from the waterline to the street. Our life on these shores is a roulette game, basically.
It's also worth noting that Katrina was at one point a Category 5 storm. So not only did it have a large wind field, it had also built up a sizeable storm surge that didn't diminish when it weakened to a Category 3.
Yeah if Katrina hit while it was at peak intensity, I honestly believe it probably would have broken Cyclone Mahina’s record.
These news outlets need to revisit the devastated areas a week, a month and a year later. Interview the same people and see how they're doing, how the rebuilding if any is going. I always wonder what happened to them and how they coped with a life-changing situation, whether their insurance companies or the govt came through for them. The news always focuses on the 'new' disasters - it needs to revisit last year's disasters.
Why, yes! I can share my storm surge story, lol. We live in North Port FL. We stayed in our house. We didn't know till the last minute that it might be a Cat 4 hurricane. Our bad. So cut to the end of the hurricane...open the front door and - whoa! A foot of water in the garage ( none in the house, thank you God ) and my car drowned in the driveway. We used our kayaks for about 5/6 days. It was interesting. 3 huge pine trees down in the backyard, right thru the lanai roof. But not the house roof. Again, thank you God. Not our first hurricane by any means, but certainly the worst.
The storm surge in Mobile County, Alabama from Katrina was 20 feet on the southern coast to 12 feet in the city. There were literal boats in trees. People in coastal areas didn’t have power for nearly a month. Katrina’s impact was much larger than this video shows.
Most people in Florida refuse to evacuate because police surround the area and will not let you back in so you can minimize the damage to your house or apartment. I evacuated three hurricanes ago and will never do it again because I was prevented from going home for two days. Angry residents had their cars backed up in lines that were miles long. There was no reason for it. When I was finally allowed to return home, there were no hazards any different from the ones I had been driving through outside the police lines and no sign that things had been any different here. They know that they can barricade off parts of the city by blocking bridges and other choke points. They live for that crap like its some sort of military op. People who die because they refuse to evacuate are refusing to go because they do not want to be prevented from returning. If you want people to evacuate, announce that they will be allowed to return right after the storm or accept responsibility for killing them.
I just don't get it. Why would you purposefully live in a place that routinely has major disasters that wipe out entire communities? It happens every year and its only going to get worse... WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!
There are natural disasters everywhere. Wake up.
Hubris of humanity.
5:30 this phenomenon is exactly why many people doubt that only around 7,000 died during Typhoon Haiyan.
Rumors still persist to this day that the real death toll was as high as 22,000.
I live in a Northern Midwest I feel like I learn something every time I watch one of your videos everybody is so informative please keep doing this I like watching and learning thank you
You can hide from the wind but you can't run from the water.
Fort myers Beach now is completely cleaned up and will experience a building boom.
Newer houses survived without major damage
Why do people want to keep living in places where hurricanes ruin everything multiple times every year? And for thousands of years, if not longer. You think it's maybe time to move inland where that's not quite an issue?
It’s sad to think that storm surge is only just now getting the attention it needs. It shouldn’t have to take a Katrina, an Ike, a Sandy, or an Ian for people to realize that water is the most deadly and destructive part of a hurricane.
Should be a federal law against rebuilding Sanibel island! Make it a BIRD sanctuary, they are smart enough to fly away before hurricanes
Praying for everyone ahead of Milton.
I had moved to Fort Myers two years prior to Ian to help my parents with the restaurant they had bought on Sanibel. While our apartment in Fort Myers was safe from flooding due to the complex having amazing draining system, we still lost the restaurant. The devastation Ian left is really difficult to see. I only got to see a little bit of it in person before my husband and I moved back north, but I've seen plenty of videos covering it and my heart sinks every time. I was born and raised in Ohio, never had to deal with tornadoes or hurricanes, and 2022 made me experience both. 🙃
What I can’t fathom: after Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Ian… it’s so obvious most hurricane damage isn’t wind-related. So why is the main metric of hurricane strength still windspeed? NOAA can’t figure out why people don’t evacuate? They think it’s just about wind. Because that’s the rating tgat gets repeated & repeated & repeated. Want to save lives? Start rating strength on a combo of pressure, windfield, wind speed, forward motion, and get graphic about storm surge, eg, not just “15 feet,” but “if you live in this area, your cars will be swept away. If you live in this area, your house could be reduced to rubble” and so on.
I was stationed near NOLA back in 2005, got my hands on a DVD copy of some people riding out Katrina (hurricane party) at a local motel in Waveland MS, and the surge is on full display. I uploaded it here, if anyone is interested.
This is an important film for those who continue to deny, ignore, the effects of climate change, but for every bit of devastation and disruption we have pictured and measured, there is so much more happening that humanity can't see, hasn't documented nor measured. As surplus energy is added to the planet, most of it absorbed by the oceans, it changes the chemistry and physics of the only home we have, and these are changes humanity has never adapted to. With this surplus energy comes increasing dynamics and risk for very bad things to happen to unaware people. We have come only so far in understanding our circumstances, considering the thousands of relevant research reports published annually about the profound effects of climate change. It is a real tragedy, already that we will not be able to stop the continued warming for those being born today. That opportunity has passed ; this ship sailed about 30 years ago. Global food supplies are now being detrimentally affected. The nutrition of our food is also dropping. Plants are having a harder time making proteins and fats, like for seed production, as carbon dioxide increases. The cold is necessary for delicious fatty fishes and to set fruit on apple trees. Pests and weeds become stronger. These changes are accelerating, with exponential growth. The costs will rise until we no longer have the ability to eat and breed. This is not the time to plug your ears, eyes, and say, "la la la, I won't listen to you."
Given the increase in coastal development around the world, the increase in weather extremes and intensification of rainfall events I would be very interested in finding out if anyone is researching just how much pollution, chemical waste, building materials and other debris is being dumped into the worlds oceans. When you see time and again even at considerable distances inland fleets of automobiles and chunks of houses being washed down thoroughfares or swept away in violent river currents you know it has to end up somewhere.
Funny thing, waste water treatments plants on the east coast of the US are specced to deal with this exact problem. These storms can push water pollutants deep from their source and dump it thousands of miles away. Mercury levels are often much higher after the passage of a hurricane due to the hurricane collecting it from illegal gold mining in africa that uses mercury to extract gold. That mercury gets caught up in the circulation of water around the storm and than gets dumped when it makes landfall.
This process is also likely occurring for pollutants we don't even test or measure for, these storms can really dredge up and mix together all sorts of horrible thing.
@@zelkuta Not only that but the volume of debris like household insulation and roofing, petroleum products, nitrates and pesticides from farm fields....
perhaps depopulation, forced relocation and stepping back into pre-industrial revolution times is in order, is that what you would suggest?
@@TheCasper1965 It would be charitable to say your trolling skills need work.
@@deepashtray5605 trolling accusations demonstrate your inability to understand a sarcastic response to folk such as yourself who infer the ideology you do. I refer to your rebuttal as intellectual laziness.
I'm in another continent, brothers and sisters, but what I've observed from contemporary hurricane experiences all over the world, is that the expression 'a once in a _______ (lifetime, 100, 1000 years) is out of the window now. Bad things happen and can repeat itself sooner some time. Like Rita following Katrina. So, take refuge as much as you can every single time. Love and strength to y'all 💜
The problem with Florida home Insurance is how to use the money. A apartment building in Kissimmee Florida had 5+ feet of water in the bottom floor apartments. It will flood again and it is a death trap at 5+ feet. But no they rebuild. 3 Ft. is ponding not flooding. It's far from the only case
I have lived in a community of big wave surfers in Hawaii for forty years. These top watermen fly to big wave events around the planet, to all the known spots that break big. They know the underwater topography of all these spots, and what the wave will be like at every buoy height recording and every storm direction. Watching the weather is something they do every day. Scientists should add these guys to their studies of bathymetry.
Thank You. The information is appreciated. It is very easy to understand. Hopefully this will reach more people💙💜💚
Don't build or buy property within 5 miles of the coast and fewer than 10 feet above sea level. Evacuate early.
Cyclone Mahina in 1899 Australia must have been so incredibly powerful to generate a storm surge like that. Barometric presssure at the time was recorded at about 880 hPa/mb, which the captain who recorded that on his boat thought was a error as we didn’t think that sort of pressure was even possible back then. Nowadays we know that on rare occasions (Typhoon Tip, Hurricane Patricia, Hurricane Wilma, Typhoon Haiyan, Cyclone Monica) these storms can indeed become so intense that they end up breaking under 900.
The western pacific seems the most likely to generate these extremely powerful storms, though that doesn’t mean other basins can’t have freak storms that can’t also do it. Cyclone Mahina, Hurricane Patricia (thank goodness that storm weakened prior to landfall) and Typhoon Tip are all such storms. Tip in particular was terrifying due to how enormous it was. Though, you don’t need to have a massive storm to cause widespread damage and death, as Cyclone Tracy which hit Darwin Australia proves. In fact, Tracy’s small size is likely the main reason why it was able to hit Darwin as a severe cyclone as if it were any larger, Bathurst Island would have weakened it. The small size allowed it to sneak in between Australia’s landmass and the Island without losing any intensity.
Tropical Cyclones are so interesting but also so terrifying.
The occupants of that house were exceptionally lucky. Very few face that much moving water unprotected and survive, let alone with their animals.
they were in an area with a posted storm surge warning and didn't evacuate?
@Mae use common sense and get away as far as possible?
@Mae then why are they still at fort myers?
2-3 days is plenty of time to get away from a hurricane
@Mae do you know what a hurricane warning is?
@Mae given the circumstances, they should've
there's also storm surge which they should've considered considering that they live at sea level
a storm surge warning is basically an evacuation alert if you pay attention to any information
Look at Typhoon Hiyan (sorry for spelling) super typhoon channeled huge storm surge into a funnel area of the Philippines. Tremendous storm surge and Australia had one much higher, WOW!
This ocean floor mapping is going to be a massive boon not just for forecasting surges but also when determining where to place coastal defenses and what kind to best mitigate potential damage.
thanks for staying on point!
Units are missing in the 0:20 graph.
Great episode as always, had not realised the bathymetry could have such a big impact but makes sense
I live in Fort Myers, scary stuff but unfortunately I feel it will only get worse . Imagine superstorms in the future that will mandate ALL of Florida to evacuate 🥶🥶🥶
@@mariecleary good time to be in houseboat sales
We can't for sure say that there's a top end wind speed for storms but for the most part it's actually considered to be about 190 mph on wind speed but of course there have been a few exceptions but they are very few. most of those exceptions have actually happened over in Asia. Except for the very very top dog of them all which is hurricane Patricia in 2015 in the eastern Pacific. Although I still think that the strongest storm ever in regards to its pressure Being the lowest was super typhoon tip in 1979. I think typhoon tip still reigns supreme as the lowest pressure ever recorded in a storm even though it's winds were not as high as patricia's. Hurricane Patricia holds the record for highest wind speed recorded typhoon tip holds the record for the lowest pressure ever recorded. I've been a hurricane chaser from home since 2004 and I've noticed a lot more category fives that happen lately in a lot more storms that love to stall and sit in one spot for a while like hurricane Harvey and hurricane Dorian is the mother of all stalling storms being that it reached 185 mph and then stalled on the Bahamas for over 24 hours.... that's beyond ridiculous
This just goes to show how inadequate the Saffir Simpson has become. Ike was "just" a 2 when it hit Galveston, yet it had one of the highest storm surges because it was such a large storm. Angle of entry is also a much bigger part of the equation. Irma was a very strong and large storm when it it SW Florida, but the angle of entry...more parallel to the coast while also weakening did not cause near the damage that Ian did by striking Ft Myers Bay at almost a perpendicular angle. We need to revamp how we classify these storms. People become complacent when they hear it is a 1 or a 2 and don't evacuate. The West Coast of FL, along with much of the Gulf Coast is very susceptible to surge.
FL native. My grandparents and dad were in the '28 storm and Labor Day storm in '35 ( grand dad helped recover bodies in the Keys. It was horrific ). People shouldn't wait for official evacuation orders. They should be aware of where they live, the elevation etc. And get TF off beaches, barrier islands, etc. Hide from the wind but run from the water.
I do live in a place and currently am looking to relocate to a safer place.
And it's not just the coastal regions, look at what happened all up and down the St. Johns river there was extreme flooding there for weeks after Ian that displacing 1000's of people. 70% of Florida will be a sandbar at low tide by the end of this century and many barrier islands and coastal regions have 10 to 20 years left at a best case scenario.
I live about 30 miles from the Galveston Island seawall in Texas. But I only live about 12 miles from the water in Galveston Bay. I'm happy that I will inherit a free house from my dad, but I'm not happy about its hurricane-prone location. I'm thinking about moving inland to the San Antonio area.
The only experience I've had that's remotely similar to a hurricane is the 2020 Iowa Derecho. That was quite an experience and while we were fine and didn't suffer any damage (a few limbs came down, but they were small), it's not an experience I want to repeat. The storm itself wasn't the worst - we knew we were safe as we were in the basement of a large cement building (we were at the dr's office when the storm came through), but we were worried about our cats at home and I was texting my mother trying to get her to take it seriously (she watched it from the kitchen window apparently). My parents and my brother had a ton of damage cuz they live out in rural areas where there's no buildings to slow the wind down.
The worst part for us was having to go without electricity for almost an entire week. At least it came through in August instead of January - dealing with the heat was annoying, but doable. We have an electric stove and don't have a grill, so we couldn't cook anything. We lost all the food in the freezer/fridge as well (no cooler either). And fortunately, my partner wasn't yet on dialysis - he started later that year. Manual peritoneal dialysis is doable, but it's got its issues and we definitely wouldn't have had the manual bag supplies for an entire week of dialysis on hand (we still don't). And considering we had no idea when the power would return, we probably would have resorted to rationing - which isn't good.
We still need to fix our fence where the two trees fell. A friend and his family are finally back in their house after the top story was bisected by a tree.
A hurricane is like a derecho but lasting for hours, a lot wetter, and pushing a wall of debris filled water with it.
Was no electricity after Francis for three months, poles burned to ground, pets at hotel 3 months, three holes in roof from tornado,neighbors front and back of us lost roof,tornado bounced I. Us..Allstate ignored us 9/4/04 to 1/29/05, check 1/10 if what was owed after paying them 54 years never a claim . Ignored insurance commissioner demands. About $488,000 under insured, by bad agent
If the planet continues to warm up, IF? Individual humans can be so amazing and intelligent. As a group, we deserve extinction.
Thank you for everything you do
Maiya, You are a brilliant speaker. Your information is well researched, which makes it informative. I have relatives in Miami and up near FL panhandle on the Atlantic side. I have concerns about their safety as we go forward into this developing climate change. Thank you.
One thing I remember was also the low pressure inside the storm - helping to get a higher water bulb.
Here near the River most old house are build on pillars ... maybe this areas have to change to this also - let 2-3 meter under the house where the water passes and maybe only the car is gone.
I definitely wouldn't like to see what would happen if an extratropical storm of such magnitude were to hit the Bay of Fundy...
The tides there are already the greatest in the world, I can't possibly imaging what would happen if even more water was blown inland.
Just don’t insure theses areas. If folk’s want to risk it, fine. This research will provide a guideline map for assessing risk. Tax dollars should not be used! I have always wondered what part of ‘flood plain’ is ambiguous. That is what the state of Florida has become and it isn’t getting better.
Great video ❤amazing
Hopefully more people will realize the incredibly bad investment of building ocean front cities and towns and begin the movement of our cities before it's too late. How many rebuilds before we move say New Orleans or Miami?
Another factor is changing conditions along the coast line. I live in the Humboldt Bay area of California, an area more prone to Tsunamis than Hurricanes, and our relationship with sea water is changing constantly due to erosion and subsidence (likely due to tectonics).
Well, If the Cascadia fault goes like the Fukushima quake, all the coast lines moving out and down deeper.
when was the last tsunamis Nor cal had? 300 years ago? a smaller one in 1946... but these are created by the subduction earthquake fault and not caused by anything else... if you feel a 7 or better living on the nor cal coast might be a good idea to head inland. 2 Tsunamis in 300 years does not equate to making a region "prone" to anything but rather rare outliers. Coastal erosion has been happening since creation, unless you're living on an island with an active volcano
@@TheCasper1965wasn’t there a tsunami fairly recently withe the large Japanese earthquake?
Ian was headed for our Palm Harbor Dunedin area, then, in the last 12 hours, it veered south. I did not realize our 24 feet of elevation might not be enough, but I would put the chances of getting hit with 24 ft of storm surge at about 1 in 1000 this half of the century. By the second half, my Pluvicopia concept should start to mitigate and reverse sea level rise.
My condolences to all who thought building structures to inhabit a giant ocean sandbar - including my grandparents 1976-1998 - was a good idea.
As a young person in 2022 I almost want something catastrophic to happen to make people snap out of their greed and delusion. I should probably stop consuming stuff like this, but knowing whats going on makes me unbelievably angry. Fuck everything.
As an older person in 2023, let me say it isn't just greed and delusion that's causing our situation. That's the root of it overall, yes. But it's also a situation where desperation plays a large part. Those with the power to change things are powerful enough never to be directly affected (not really anyway) and may even profit from these events. Everyone else, who don't have power, must play by their game. Hence, where the desperation comes in. It's easy to say, "wake up! Change things!" But it is much harder to actually do when it means you are going to loose everything with possibly nothing to show for it! Especially when you live paycheck to paycheck, just trying to get by, survive and keep your family above ground from week to week. It's hard for people to put the little bit they have at risk, especially when they have such a small amount of power to actually change things on an individual level. Collectively we are strong, but on our own we crumble. In that regard, your anger could be just as dangerous as the greed because it risks causing division between you and others. That division perpetuates the problem, rather than fixing it, when it is directed at the wrong things.
However, If there's one thing I think can save us, it's how connected "Zoomers" can be. We've never had a global generation before but they (possibly you?) have already managed to have dramatic effects on our world, and with effing memes no less. XD The potential power they can collectively wield if they learned to harness it is.... frighteningly impressive in it's possibilities.
in acapulco we had the hurricane otis, cat 5, and the storm surge was around 50cm
Good video, great speaker. She's gotten better
7:26 god bless those folks; going through that and still making sure they kept their dogs safe. As a dog day I can totally relate. Our pups are our family, period. I’m grateful the couple survived but even more grateful they’d survived along with their dogs.
Ian was my first hurricane. I live in Fort Myers Shores and we had flooding up river. One house had a boat on its porch a few streets over from my house. I luckily didn’t get any damage and only lost power for a little over a week.
The program was well done and easy to understand. I appreciate programs like this. Thank you.
But it's not just the wind blowing the water into shore. That can certainly be a contributing factor, But ultimately what causes storm surge is the low pressure in the center of the storm. This creates a bulge around the eye of the storm.
whoever popped out of that door has the best souvenir video ever
I don’t know about that. This was my first hurricane and I’m feeling ptsd vibes just from this vid.
I evacuated Savannah, GA for Floyd & NE New Jersey for Sandy. No damage for me either time, but some of my neighbors, just a few blocks over, didn’t fare so well. Even though we were a couple of miles inland. I’m now on the Florida Panhandle. We didn’t catch the worst of Ian here, but I’m sure a big one will arrive eventually. I have 2 hard rules based on my experiences. Never live on a barrier island, nature created it as a barrier for a reason & ALWAYS evacuate, insurance can replace anything except your life.
This girl is a great narrator, she should be on a national show, shes smart and likeable.🌞
Watching in 2024 for Hurricane Milton. Not even two weeks after Hurricane Helena
You know…. I don’t believe peninsulas like FL will submerged from the coastline in, but in fact entirely all at once because of the type of porous soils like limestone. Sea water could easily enter the aquifers & with that many lakes it’s easy to connect them together.
THAT FLOATING DRONE IS SO COOL!!!
18ft storm surge in fort Myers beach is crazy
In the 1800s, Tybee Island, Ga was hit by a 24 foot storm surge.
I like how San Diego was shown as increasingly high pop. density but not LA... it's awful here and everyone wants to leave
I'd like to know what kind of impacts this will have on rivers.
It was devastating. The earths temperature changes according to ice samples- we can see changes over millennia. We are in a changing era.
Correction "Hurricane" Sandy was not technically a Hurricane and it made Labdfall in New JERSEY (not New York), and the impacts to the New JERSEY coast were far more than New York
best pictures of just how fast storm surge is , wow , I lived in central Florida while in the Navy , glad I missed the big storms .
Love it but survey too long. My suggestions on episodes would be: How will climate change affect global stock markets and sports thx!
Ooo, interesting topic! Thanks for sharing
Yep, littoral coastlines typically accrete over periods of milder weather and erode in storm conditions that's when old seawalls, ship wrecks and other structures re-emerge. Happens all the time
I'm typing this a few hours before Hurricane Idalia will be coming ashore in Florida in August 2023 - and this is just months after Hurricane Ian, shown in this video. Idalia will be producing a storm surge as well, and a handful of people interviewed on TV have said they're not evacuating. If these people survive, I'm sure they will painfully regret that decision.
It's not hard: if you live on coastal property, you take the risk of coastal weathering. Don't cry when it happens. YOU take the risk.
Mother Nature is ultimately going to take back what was hers to begin with
She didn’t say in the video but the highest storm surge at 28 feet occurred in Pass Christian, Mississippi.
I think the craziest storm video of 2022 was the guy who was pretty much standing in the middle of the Ellabell, Georgia tornado
the storm surge in Buffalo was dangerous too
what is annoying is sciences failure to connect solar weather with our regular weather. Solar scientist knows if you have a solar storm that adds a electromagnetic charge to a hurricane or Typhoon it will make the storm much worse. Which is what happened with Ian. The night before Ian rapidly grew we had a solar event that was strong enough to cause auroras all the way down in Des Moines Iowa. What is scarry, we are starting to have stronger electromagnetic events because we are in the middle of magnetic pole reversal on earth, and we are going to continue to get stronger and stronger storm over the next few years that could definitely makes any type of weather worse on earth. The best solution to be move all house away from the coastlines. Leave the coast lines to as National and State parks with Movable businesses and Rv housing.
Is there a place to see the full video from the probe?
Great program, thanks
Great video!!
There’s also realistic solutions that don’t require half the US to move inland and abandon all ports and infrastructure (and force people in wildfire states or in the Colorado River basin) to move?). My home in New Orleans is raised several feet (on concrete blocks) above Katrina flood levels and I have solar backup power. We have a much better flood control system that (hopefully) won’t fail like in a storm even stronger than Katrina. My house might honestly probably safer from global warming’s effects than most because I’m already addressing it.
A lot of coastal cities also aren’t there because of vacation homes. They’re industrial and/or port cities that the nation can’t simply abandon. On top of that, many inland cities are the size they are because that’s what their water supply and geography allow. We can’t just all move to Phoenix or to wildfire zones.
I wish FEMA would focus more on building structures that are adapted to hurricanes rather than paying for structures that support fast economic growth but only stand until the next hurricane.