interesting point – that is almost exactly the price of a set of race tires…

 

Having never lived through a hurricane, I'm compelled to ask... was it scarier because they forecast it to be much worse than it seemingly was? I'm sure it's plenty scary sitting in the house as 100 mile an hour winds buffeted the area as it was, but did the media scaremongering have anything to do with the apprehension? I know up here they really over-blow snowfall predictions to get everyone all worked up, and they are almost never as bad as they say they'll be, leaving everyone either laughing at them or mad at them. Not downplaying your experience at all...

 

Man that's a very interesting turn for this conversation!
The answer is yes and no.

Yes it was a terrible storm that caused lots of trouble for the entire Florida peninsula. I carefully chose the word "trouble" as opposed to stronger words.

But, there's no good reason it should have been national news. Not even a bit.

You can't drive two-tenths of a mile anywhere without knowing there was a bad storm. Tree branches/leaves EVERYWHERE. And I'll confidently speculate that you couldn't drive 2 miles without seeing a downed tree or broken business sign. It seems "everyone" has no electricity; only rare fortunate few people do have power (including my family). Many people don't have running water, and some people lack internet. Or any combination thereof.

The above paragraph reports are from my colleagues ranging from Naples, all the way up to Jacksonville. So yeah, definitely widespread damage and trouble.

I heard of only 4 fatalities; 3 from people driving during hurricane winds, and one from natural causes in a hurricane shelter...

I've seen zero reports of building damage, except for cloth awnings and trees falling on a building. Granted, our building codes are more stringent since about 1992, but still...

"hurricane Irma is going to hit Key West as a category 4!!!!!" - - - I haven't been watching the news as much as usual, but I haven't caught any stories about carnage down there... Have you all? Same for Naples.

I am impressed with how (over)full it made the retention pond in my neighborhood. probably raised the level 8-12'. And we now have an alligator hanging out in there... And my buddy has (had) and empty pool that he was going to recondition... it's now full. Standard size pool raised 6-8' in 24 hours.

Most impressively is that it FLATTENED the chain link fence at my office (in Orlando). It's about 50' long, standard chain link fence, with lots of growth on it. I fully understand how the growth makes it catch more wind, but still... No evidence of any object hitting it, but absolutely flattened it. I'll try to post a pic soon.

But to get back to your original question: was it scarier because of the hype? ... yes and no.
Yes we were much much more scared (for a WEEK) because of the hype. That fear drove us to board up some windows and get cash from the bank (never used) and store 20gallons of fuel (never used). And camp out in the middle of the house away from windows. And buy ice and water (never used). And stay up all night watching the news.

But looking back, we could have simply prepped with a cool head and gone on with life.

The Eye of the storm went right over us in Lakeland FL. I watched out the windows a few times and it was definitely awe inspiring. Tremendous energy/power. It looked exactly like the videos on TV, but was a whole different experience in person. It's this feeling of unbelievable, raw power that seems like it will never stop. And it was between Category 1 and 2 when I experienced it.

My wife slept through the worst part. What does that tell you?

 

So, the two items at the top with my drawn arrows: these are about 5' tall and as best I can surmise they control water levels by leading it to a lower area.
And the "usual size" of the pond is bigger than what I drew. It's hard to draw accurately.
See notes in my post.


Overfull retention pond.

 

^ Wide view of flattened fence
^ specific view. 5 of these pole bent nearly 90degrees. 7 bent in total.
^ almost 90 degrees bent.

 

Pretty crazy how all that happened in about a day.

 

be glad you were not in the worst part of the storm.

 

Glad to see you back, Im. Most of my other Florida friends have checked in and they are fine but with some property damage.

I agree that they over-report snow up here in Michigan, but with the unpredictability of hurricanes, and all the lives lost in Katrina (I have friends who were in New Orleans for that one--and a couple of them lost vintage guitars/family photos/etc. and had to have their homes gutted after flooding and mold growth), I think it's better to be safe than sorry. If over-reporting saves just one life, or a handful of lives, it's worth it IMO.

I don't think there's an answer, but what should have the news media have done before Katrina? Although they have commercial interests, I think there is also a desire to never see another Katrina type situation.

 

I agree with every single thing you said. But I just wanted to highlight the one line above; "the answer" is that mysterious, unknown fine line between telling the truth and telling a story for attention. And we will never know where that line is because it is somewhere in the decisions of the news people.

I find it very interesting to have sat there and switch between national news and local news about the hurricane as it was approaching. Some very real differences. Easily summed up in the exact manner you would expect. National news was all hyped up excited, and the local news was more reasonable and realistic.

reiterating; I agree with everything you said.

 

It won't matter in a couple of decades as the ocean level rises.

 

What difference does it make?

 

the state will be underwater
you'll have to live on a boat

 

Oceans won't rise until California breaks off the mainland during an earthquake and falls into the ocean.
Nebraska is the only safe place.

 

Thank God Floridians don't have to shovel snow.

 

sorry, you can deny science but it still is true.