This is the only good thing about living in the Central Valley of Ca. The weather never destroys your stuff . Stay safe.

 

You aren’t safe anywhere. Earthquakes, forest fires (although these can be managed by man), blizzards, tornados, flash floods.

The only good part about rain events is that you can build a little more inland and avoid this and also build up and stronger.

 

Current radar pic of the storm, very well defined eye, just moving off of Cuba.
This is a very strong storm, going to be very bad for all along the west coast of Florida.
Wouldn't surprise me if it is still CAT4 when it makes landfall.
All you guys thinking about riding it out, I wish you would re-think that and get out.

 

I hope noone was in the Ft Myers area. Absolutely devastating with very little time to prepare or evacuate. So awful to see.

 

No offense but we get plenty of time to prepare or evacuate. Many simply choose not to do things or procrastinate. We watch these things coming for at least a week and the NHC forecast cone is pretty darn accurate. Heck a few decades ago we would get the current coordinates and we could track where the storm had been with little to no prediction as to where it was going. Is it perfect? No but we all know it is coming and have at least 2-3 days to seriously prepare. if you live in "hurricane alley" there are certain things you can already have in place (shutters, impact windows, etc) and there are certain things you can do well before a storm arrives (food and water, generator, etc). I've stayed for up to Cat 3. Anything higher and we're leaving. The ability to work remotely now probably means Cat 3 or higher and we will bug out.

Possessions are not worth risking your life. i do not want my comments to be read as callous but folks that have been through a major storm or have seen the damage caused by one first hand know to GTFO. Big hurricanes come with tornadoes and most homes aren't holding up to that. If you can't get out of the path then at least get to a shelter.

Sorry for the rant but I've been through plenty of hurricanes and I had a late night.. I drove 4 hours late last night to get a relative that is without power to bring them to my house until it is back on. Friends and neighbors are gathering supplies, generators, etc to send to people in need on the west coast.

 

Its a balance act. If you are on the texas coastline many people remember Rita and crazy evacuations and over reactions. Lots of new migrants that exasperated that as they’re not aware of whats going on; lots of them got robbed or looted.

During Ike (my house took a direct impact and was destroyed) we had about 24 hours, maybe less realistic time to evacuate. And its a damn mad house. I filled up diesel the night before and went in to buy beer at a Valero (hardly close unless flooded or destroyed it seems) and the cashier told me I can just have it.

Believe it or not once you loose your stuff like that you will quickly learn possessions aren’t that valuable. I didn’t care too much as I grabbed anything I could not replace.

 

And, now Ian is a hurricane again, current wind speed is 85 MPH, CAT1 strength, and will make a second U.S. landfall later today in South Carolina.

 

No, the folks in Ft Myers did not have plenty of time to evacuate. It was supposed to hit the Tampa Bay area where I am and at the 11pm and 9am updates it turned significantly directly at them. They basically had 12 hours notice to GTFO. The local news reporter from here who went down there said there weren't businesses boarded up or sand bags to be seen. They were not expecting it at all and weren't prepared. Over 2 million people from the Tampa bay area evacuated as we did have plenty of notice.

 

The whole state has had plenty of notice. I'm not even in the state and I've been hearing about Ian since it was a tropical storm days out from Florida. If you live on the coast and didn't evacuate thats on you.

 

Yeah, the whole west and southwest coast of Florida was advised to evacuate WELL IN ADVANCE of the storm making landfall.
Always better safe than sorry, if you leave and the storm goes somewhere else and doesn't affect your area, then you are gold, if it does hit your area, then you are safe and live to see another day.

 

spoken like someone who doesn't actually live here. lol. Ft Myers is 4hrs south of the Tampa Bay area and NONE of the projections had it going there. There was a front of dry air that pushed Ian farther than even the "experts" expected and much quicker.

that simply isn't true. The entire west coast of Florida is a lot larger than some of you must think. Once again, this thing turned quickly. They told us it was supposed to slow down and sit over us for 36-48 hours and the storm surge was going to be catastrophic. When it turned, our area had all of the water sucked out instead.

 

Delete dupe .. .see below.

 

Ok, hear me out. The hurricane was headed towards Florida from south of Florida and expected to turn over Florida around Tampa. The hurricane would have to go past Ft Myers to get to Tampa. EVEN if it passed in the gulf what do you think happens if the hurricane goes by Ft Myers and turns all of sudden? How many times has a hurricane changed course since humans have tracked hurricanes? Meteorologists can't even predict the weather 2 days from now with 100% accuracy why would you believe them when they say days out where a hurricane is heading? The path can change AT ANY TIME.

 

I live here.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/202...cone_with_line

When was the point of landfall not within "the cone". Too many people look at the line which is a huge mistake. IMHO the cone should be bigger.

 

Even on this model the predicted path adjusted daily. The entire west side of Florida looks like a potential path of the storm.