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FORT MYERS, Fla. – A man and his cat rode out the fury of Hurricane Ian last week in his sailboat, which was his home before the storm. Ian was a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with 150-mph winds when it slammed into Southwest Florida on Sept. 28. The terrible winds pushed ashore feet of water from the Gulf of Mexico as it made landfall. Widespread destruction was left behind. Ron Latta, of Fort Myers, said he had been living in his 32-foot boat named "Lattatude" for four years, and decided to stay with his home. "You don’t leave your boat,"...

A man in Daytona Beach, Florida, went viral after sharing that he successfully waterproofed his store against Hurricane Ian with spray foam and Flex Seal. Eddie Kastrul, the owner of Midwest Motorcycle Sales & Rental, posted a video of his undamaged store on Facebook over the weekend. A woman named Cori Bosco (@eastcoastdiy) later re-posted Kastrul's video to TikTok, where it has gone viral with over 1 million views. You can watch the full video here. Hurricane Ian moved through Florida and the Carolinas last week, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage, reported Reuters. Bosco—a Daytona Beach resident...

In the sunshine state, we met the sofa survivor. In the worst hit part of southwest Florida, David Dean told us how he saw out Hurricane Ian. "I found myself around three or four in the afternoon, floating on a sofa with my head just above the ceiling fans, 18 inches below the ceiling. I was gasping for air." As the water rose inside David's 1970s single-storey park home, he planned for the worst - and an exit route. "From that point, it was going to be to try to get out the door and hold on to a palm...

VIDEO AT LINK...................... A Twitter video shared Wednesday appears to show the ocean in Tampa disappearing as Hurricane Ian is set to make landfall. What was once described as a “once in a lifetime tidal event” by NBC News in 2017 during the onset of Hurricane Irma has reportedly occurred again: the ocean along Florida’s coastline is receding rapidly out to sea as Hurricane Ian draws ever closer, as seen in a video shared on Twitter. Hurricane Irma was the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, but the standard set by the enormous 2017 storm may be broken on Wednesday...

2 minute and 45 second video at link.

The entire Florida Peninsula and points north are poised to experience Hurricane Irma after the storm hugged Cuba's northern coastline. Thousands of Floridians who evacuated the Atlantic cost to Gulf Coast areas found their safe shelter under direct threat from Hurricane Irma as the forecast shifted W Friday night and Saturday. Hurricane Irma's prolonged interaction with Cuba diminished its strength to Category 3. Irma is forecast to increase in strength as it crosses the FL Straits. The Florida Keys experienced strong outer bands while Irma grazed the N Cuba coastline. Mash image to find lots of satellite imagery linksPublic AdvisoriesNHC...

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, scientists and officials are trying to protect the largest US city from future floods. Joe Leader's heart sank as he descended into the South Ferry subway station at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York. It was 8 p.m. on 29 October, and Hurricane Sandy had just made landfall some 150 kilometres south in New Jersey. As chief maintenance officer for the New York city subway system, Leader was out on patrol. He had hoped that the South Ferry station would be a refuge from the storm. Instead, he was greeted by wailing...

A three-metre tidal surge is predicted to surge down the English Channel in the next 12 hours posing an "extreme danger to life and property", experts have warned. Coupled with storms and high tides, the wave could leave swathes of the east coast under water, according to the Environment Agency. A combination of gale force winds off the coast of Scotland and high tides are expected to cause floods which could breach sea defences. • Nine severe flood warnings issued by Environment Agency • Surge expected to hit east coast in next 12 hours • Police on standby to evacuate...

This hurricane is much worse than Katrina in terms of loss of life. Hot dry Saharan air mixes with warm moist air of the jungles of Africa interact sometimes in mid-August, which a cluster of thunderstorms forms and moves off to the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of western Africa. This cluster of thunderstorm of persisted over the open water. Most of the thunderstorms, which are tropical waves or easterly waves fade away harmlessly. However this one did not die out. The tropical wave gains strength and becomes a tropical depression and tropical storm. Then this storm makes landfall over...

If thought Hurricane Katrina could destroy the city of New Orleans or the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 did to Galveston. There was another strong hurricane that hit Texas in 1886. This hurricane hit the town of Indianola, which is located on the Gulf Coast. It was a thriving port town, second to Galveston. Indianola was established in 1846 in Calhoun County. It was hit by a hurricane on September 15, 1875, which claimed hundreds of lives. However, it quickly rebuilt, but on a smaller scale. Sometimes in early August, a cluster of thunderstorms moved off the coast of Africa...

Imagine the following: It’s a beautiful Labor Day weekend. Sunny, cloudless, 80 degrees. Backyard barbecues are fired up all over the metropolitan area, and the beaches of New York City, New Jersey and southern Long Island are jam-packed with bathers. The only sign that something unusual is happening is the relatively big waves rolling up on Coney Island. It’s a surfer’s paradise. Mike Lee isn't enjoying the long weekend. For the last two weeks, Lee, the Director of Watch Command at New York City's Office of Emergency Management, has been observing a series of weather systems form off the western...

In order to understand the Katrina disaster, it is crucial to understand the concept of "Storm Surge". In New Orleans, the evacuattion plan was particularly crucial because New Orleans was in the Storm Surge Zone, it was below sea level, its levies were only designed for a Category 3 and Katrina was forecast as a Category 5. I wrote a post explaning the issue of "Storm Surge" to another Freeper who does not live in Hurricane Ally. The subsequent feedback I got from other Freepers said it was very educational. So, I decided it would benefit from its own thread....

[Let me begin by expressing my heartfelt condolences to the survivors of our nation's most devastating natural disaster to date. I can't imagine the pain and the loss they must be experiencing.] It's clear that many of the people living in those Mississippi coast towns like Waveland and Ocean Springs and Biloxi and Gulfport were unable to comprehend the magnitude of the danger to their persons and property that Hurricane Katrina represented as it churned towards them. What could these people, and also knowledgeable people in authority, have done to better inform themselves of the threat they faced? For...

Link post: go the thread below to post commentary for discussion -- thanks! Geology Picture of the Week, August 29-September 4, 2004: New Geology courtesy of Hurricane Charley

This is already old news, but it's a reminder of what's coming... (I downsized the image so it would fit on a "regular-sized" browser window. Click on the image to see the full-size version, which can be further expanded in most browsers by clicking right on the image.)

The National Hurricane Center has now upgraded Hurricane Charley to a CATEGORY 3 storm with SUSTAINED winds of 125 MPH. The storm is moving NNE at 20 MPH, and the center of the storm should reach Charlotte Harbor (about 2 hrs. SOUTH of Tampa) late this afternoon. This is good news for Tampa, as the worst of the storm will be to the south of Tampa Bay. The CAT 3 storm will come ashore in the Naples and Ft. Myers areas late this afternoon.

The National Weather Service has just issued a Tornado Watch for most of south Florida until at least 8:00 Friday morning. Hurricane City is streaming live coverage at http://hurricanecity.com/live.ram -- their coverage includes reports from The Weather Channel, from observers on the ground, plus streamed reports from local Miami television stations.