Posted on 01/15/2012 7:09:55 PM PST by POWERSBOOTHEFAN
I'm a huge weather geek and I'm wondering if any Floridans here on FR lived,or still live,in Homestead or the immediate area.
If so,I'm curious as to what you experienced.
I was there the day after to help someone move. The sights were beyond belief, destruction all over the place. A week after, I was watching C5’s come into Opa Locka about ten minutes apart to bring in supplies. Bush the Elder was taking a lot of heat for not doing enough.
I mean, my house was "totalled" by the insurance company, but I consider myself lucky because the house did not collapse or explode or anything like that. it was only breached in that one room, which was scary because at that moment, the door to the hallway nearly blew out, allowing the ravages of the outdoors to enter the rest of the house, but luckily, I was huddled in that interior hallway and managed to catch the doorknob and hold it, while my father in law grabbed some decorative ribbon, and helped me tie that doorknob to the one across the hall, probably saving the house. You could see that thing bend and flex, it was weird.
The strangest part, and the most memorable actually, for me, was going outside the next morning, and seeing that the trees had been denuded of their leaves, there was no green anywhere, as the grass was either underwater or covered by mud and sand. I got up on the roof of the house, and the view was mindblowing, like something out of a Twilight Zone episode. It really looked like a post apocalyptic painting. As far as the eye could see, there was devastation. And because the trees were either knocked down, or bereft of greenery, you could see for miles and miles. I remember, for the first time in my life, Seeing Turkey Point nuclear reactor, at a distance.
Another sight I will never forget, seeing some poor birds, flopping on the ground, unable to fly, because they had been stripped of their plumage. Sickening and sad. I got a lot more memories, just too many to type at one time..
It’s strange when most of your landmarks are gone. It’s like waking up in a different place than where you were the day before. After Wilma was similar, but not as bad as Andrew. And after Wilma I remember going out and it smelled like a lumberyard.
Wow, Paradox! What a nightmare! And you made it!
I was stationed at Homestead AFB when it happened.
I miss my squadron and friends from there... we were spread out all around the world.. Was able to see one on my way back to Texas, he was stationed at Eglin AFB.. and was able to find 2 more through email.. other than that, no clue where they are.
Yeah, that brought back memories... South Florida.. you can’t normally see more than 1/4 mile in any direction because of all of the greenery.. I remember standing on the flight-line and being able to see Turkey Point.. scared the crap out of me.. (I was thinking of cracks in the cooling towers.. and the JP fuel tanks leaking..)
I went through Katrina in Jackson, Mississippi, and WHAT A RIDE IT WAS!!
>>The strangest part, and the most memorable actually, for me, was going outside the next morning, and seeing that the trees had been denuded of their leaves, there was no green anywhere, as the grass was either underwater or covered by mud and sand. I got up on the roof of the house, and the view was mindblowing, like something out of a Twilight Zone episode. It really looked like a post apocalyptic painting. As far as the eye could see, there was devastation. And because the trees were either knocked down, or bereft of greenery, you could see for miles and miles. I remember, for the first time in my life, Seeing Turkey Point nuclear reactor, at a distance.
Crap, I remember the same thing with Katrina. Deathly quiet, 95 degrees, 95 humidity at night with no electricity or water for weeks. I remember a pine in my father’s backyard snapping in half every minute.
There were dead bodies EVERYWHERE rotting in the sun....and the flies... OMG...THE FLIES...
Ugh. How awful.
Hard to believe it’s going to be 20 yrs.this August.
I doubt Obama would come,at least not right away.
Holy crap!
I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like going through a major hurricane and losing everything.
Those concrete towers at Turkey Point, which were built to withstand 190mph sustained winds, were cracked from Hurricane Andrew. I was in Broward at the time, but was down in Miami several times in the following week.
My placcce in the interior of the Everglades also caught the embedded vvortex winds from the eye wall. Mature Lysiloma trees 15% harder and stronger than oak) were twisted until they shattered, and large oaks were laid on their sides.
Leaves were gone, and thus the heat, lack of wind (the “calm after the storm”), humidity and no electricity made for an oppressive experience. It was six weeks before power was restored.
Wilma was somewhat better, but other okas were just broken off like twigs.
For years, alongside Krome Avenue was a tall palm tree with a 6’ piece of 2 x 4 lumber driven half way through the trunk at about30 feet above the ground.
A friend’s son had taken his large sportfisherman into the mangroves, had made it secure and was riding it out, but the tuna door in the transom opened. He left the cabin to close it and took a piece of wood through his skull.
I’m guessing your friend’s son died?
People have survived the most incredible accidents or injuries sustained in another fashion.
It must have been darn near impossible to ID some of those bodies.
I wasn’t there for it, but I went down with 10th MTN afterwards to help clean up. I can recall seeing what was left of a mobile home wadded up like so much aluminum foil, and wedged into the branches of a completely bare tree. I also remember going to the Homestead AFB at one point, and seeing several large airplanes that had been flipped by the storm.
There is a book about the 1900 storm that destroyed Galveston Texas. Issac’s Storm. My grandfather survived that storm in Galveston and I heard all his stories when I was very young. My memories of his story telling makes it almost seem like I was there and lived it. The book Issac’s Storm was like listening to grandad again.
I have been through several hurricanes but not one of the big ones, thankfully.
He died, probably instantly. It was many days before the body was found.
ParcMan had framed his father on a trumped up felony level sex charge. The frame-up was so egregious the judge told the Fed. asst AG “You saw the video. You know the video shows he did nothing. Why did you file this case.”
In legalese, that means give me a reason not request your disbarment.
The lame answer: My client wanted the case filed.”
Unpo questioning the ParcPerson about why the case was forced into court, the answer was “We thought we had a 50/50 chance of winning”.
ParcPersons thought wrongly. What a vexatious experience, after losing ones son, thanks to the all too common ParcPerson out of control.
Then, to make matters worse, after losing his inholding where his camp was to the Feddies, he has to have a special escort of ParcPersons when he goes to where his son’s ashes are - his old camp.
A pox upon all ParcPersons!
How old was he?
Who found his body?
They must have used dental records to ID him.
I live on the West coast of Florida and we have been REALLY lucky.
I feel for the animals,too. Poor things.
There were few fatalities. #10 is a bit of an exaggeration.
I lived on the Texas coast through Ike.
I find that the legacy of really bad storms never really goes away from places that have been demolished. It knocks people and all life back in those places, even with rebuilding.
Everyone is knocked back by the horror and super hard work of picking up the pieces of civilization from stratch and that trauma never fully goes away from places. A sense of permanence and safety is a comfort people don’t realize they have until it is gone.
It ain’t no fun at sea, either.
Yes, I remember those actually! you could hear the wind accellerate and start howling at an even higher frequency, I remember that happening at least twice. It was like a Tornado within a Hurricane. It was during one of those peak moments when the corner of my roof gave way and trashed the one room in my house. But that was weird and unexpected for me, at the time. Those vortexes were strong enough to destroy one cinderblock structure in the northern eye wall. What a strange storm, so small and fast, and yet so destructive.
Missing landmarks, yes! I recall the next morning, I walked to my sisters’ houses. The lived within 1/2 mile of me, but I got lost for hours, as I could hardly see the ground (covered in water) and the trees made no sense anymore and the signs were down. It was bizzare. My family had all gone to safer ground for the storm, I thought I would be a tough guy and stick it out. It took me about 4 hours to make the rounds. Their houses were worse than mine, simply because of their orientation.
>>I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like going through a major hurricane and losing everything.
Yeah, the folks on the coast got it worst. I can remember driving through my uncle’s neighborhood in Meridian and seeing 80 ft oaks knocked down everywhere. The wind stripped all of leaves off so flowers bloomed in September.
Hearing the stories our guy told us, we felt extremely fortunate to only have 'cosmetic' damage, such as needing to replumb the house, etc. - at least we had a roof over our heads.
I went thru Hurricane Andrew, but I wasn’t directly in its path. I was staying with my brother-in-law during storm because I was evacuated from my home.(I lived 13 blocks from beach) I stayed on county line road out west. I lived in South Florida up until 1997 for my whole life and had been thru many other hurricanes and tropical storms. That one my friend was a beast. The sliding glass doors were boarded up and the pressure had them bulging to such a point that we had to evacuate that room. The aftermath was horrible. We worked as salesreps in that Homestead area. You couldn’t tell where you were because there were no trees or street signs left. It looked desolate. Took about 2 years to rebuild some areas. Businesses were destroyed along with the houses. Never will forget it.
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