I’ve been keeping an eye on this one. My MIL’s sister has a place in Fort Myers that got destroyed 2 years ago and has since been repaired but not raised bc there wasn’t more than 50% damage in terms of overall value.
She’s upstate on my MIL’s property still where she spends her summers. At the moment landfall appears to be north of Fort Myers but they are still going to get hit hard.
This thing was a tropical storm less than 36 hours ago and now a Cat 5. Incredible. Forecast shows it entering an unfavorable air mass which should knock it down to a strong 2 / weak 3 when it makes landfall but the storm will double in size by then.
It’s pretty amazing that this was able to form so soon after Helene. Normally colder water gets churned up by the preceding storm which makes new storm development in the same area less likely in the following 2-3 weeks.
Our people down there - who are all seasoned Floridians, well-accustomed to doing the needful when Mother Nature throws a monkey-wrench into the works - are by design kitted-up nicely for accommodating our BYOD policies when disaster strikes; they’ll still earn their income even if they can’t find it possible to personally show up for work.
To be fair, and for that reason, it’s not our own people that I’m most concerned about - it’s those of my fellow humans who have neither the wherewithal or the capability to weather the storm, come what may, that troubles me now…
Even if not closed, count on massive disruptions on logistics. Mail likely to stop, and who knows when gas might be available again; without gas or power, no one gets to work, even if the workplace is functioning fine.
Generac stock(the favorite generator of Gulf-Coast residents. Took my F-I-L a year to have one installed, including waiting list for the actual item, shipped from Wisconsin) went up 9% yesterday on the Dow…
This could also crush the Florida home-market-so says the WSJ. Cause insurance rates to spike yet again.(Gulf coastal residents shouldn’t feel alone. In AZ, our home Insurance went up from $1700 5 years ago to 3900 this year. The reason? We’ve had 2 wild-fires within a hundred miles in that period plus a home burned down a block away. So it ain’t just flood waters and surge that make insurers leery!)
Not just Florida, but much of the East Coast. I recall after Hugo someone having their house washed away, saying that they rebuilt after some previous hurricane, and they would rebuild again. Seems crazy to me, and makes me think that while Federal Aid is a good thing, perhaps it should come with strings attached like “move somewhere else”.
Of course, there are also people who would question the sanity of those living in California, just waiting for the “big one” (which, unlike a hurricane, doesn’t come with advance warning).
Frankly, even without the hurricanes, I wouldn’t want to live in Florida; too hot, too humid, and worst of all, too flat. I’ll take mountains over beach anytime (possibly because my Scottish genes mean I sunburn by the time I walk from the car to the boardwalk).
“I’ll take mountains over beach anytime (possibly because my Scottish genes mean I sunburn by the time I walk from the car to the boardwalk).”
OMG, reminds me of the time I visited, years ago with an old boyfriend at his parents’ summer house in NH, 5 hours drive from Manhattan. We walked in and his Mum announced we both had, “tenement pallor,” and sent us out to get some sun on the terrace.
I was turning pink in less than 20 minutes. 23 and me says I have British ancestors. I describe my skin color as somewhat akin to the bottom of a fish.
I have English-verified due to his signature as a indentured servant on the Mayflower Compact-German/Irish genes. Red-haired-with cosmetological assistance- till my hair went completely white in my late 50’s. I envied anyone who tanned-who were about 99% of the kids who attended HS with me.
The first time my future husband saw me in a bikini, he asked “Have you been sick?” Tact was never his forte…and reader, still I married him.
I have a very slight tan, thanks to an experimental (at the time) drug treatment I had in my early years; something that (as I understand it) broke up some of the pigment in the freckles to let it spread around.
Treatment consisted of taking the pill, waiting two hours, then sun-bathing for a set amount of time; then avoiding all sunlight for the rest of the day, as I was actually more sensitive than normal. So exposure times were measured in seconds at the start, and only worked up to about 4-5 minutes per/side at the end of the treatment. But it was enough that I now can go outside and last for 20-30 minutes without showing significant reddening, as long as it’s not within a couple of hours of mid-day during the summer.
My Scottish heritage shows through enough that I once had a total stranger identify my clan from my looks.
Yea, I was just watching Fox Weather. Storm recently made an unexpected jog to the south putting Fort Myers even more in play. Surge is worse on the south side anyway so I fear my Aunt in laws house is probably done for this time. She doesn’t have the money to rebuild again. She has a govt loan she’s paying off from Ian.
She can’t stay where she is now because that house is not winterized, doesn’t have heat, and the water line from the well is only 6" underground. Both houses get closed up annually before the first frost. She will probably end up living with her daughter in up state NY who has a 365 day a year home up there.
This one appears to be catastrophe for many and it will hit close to home, again…
This sucks. Her son, who’s a builder, was literally going down on 10-27 to finish the house. It’s taken over 2 years to rebuild it and now it will be gone again. I can’t even keep track of the storm surge events down in Fort Myers this year but she had damage to her AC ducts that was already replaced in 2024, which also was replaced from Ian in 2023.
She should have raised the home but couldn’t afford to do so. She rolled the dice and appears she will lose.
In Laws are just north of Tampa but inland, brother in law purchased a brand new house 2 weeks ago north of that (again inland). Both have said “we are staying we aren’t in a zone” and my response was, yeah well, zone or not, no power, no cell/data, no water, no food, no fuel for weeks. “Were fine we aren’t on the coast, we won’t flood!”
For those of you who use FedEx, your representative may be able to send or has already sent an operations update for Helene and Milton.
FedEx expects full operations to resume on 10/11 but I think that’s a bit overly optimistic. Normal transit times will also take much longer to get back to than full operations.
A number of people here locally have reported seeing it. Too many trees near me to see it. If I head out in the country a few miles I may be able to see it.
