My (now deceased) grandparents lived in Ft. Myers and refused to leave for Charley- the aftermath was rough. This is going to be so much worse, I hope most people heeded evacuation orders.

Anonymous wrote:Living it here on the nature coast. We are coastal, north of the expected landfall. The wind and rain are really starting to pick up.

We're in St Pete, grateful the storm didn't hit us directly like it was looking like it would, and shellshocked by what's happening in Ft Myers. The flooding is unreal - and nowhere near done. It's very rainy and windy here today but not - yet - markedly worse than our usual summer storms. I guess it's going to get windier and ranier for many hours to come, that said.

Living it here on the nature coast. We are coastal, north of the expected landfall. The wind and rain are really starting to pick up.

Anonymous wrote:

The Fort Meyers camera that I linked to at 13:29 is reportedly 10-12 feet above ground: one guy had to get up on another guy's shoulders to mount it.

It is now completely underwater.

And this is just the eastern eyewall - the "weak" one. Next up is passage of the western eyewall over Fort Meyer. Surge expected up to 18 ft.

The Fort Meyers camera that I linked to at 13:29 is reportedly 10-12 feet above ground: one guy had to get up on another guy's shoulders to mount it.

It is now completely underwater.

Anonymous wrote:My folks live just south of Tampa. The Tampa area has never had a direct hit from a hurricane, and lucky again they've dodged it. Ft Myer, Sanibel - they are hurting, that's for sure.

Just heard in passing that one model has Ian crossing Florida, hitting the Atlantic, intensifying and riding the GUlf Stream before slamming into the Caorlinas. Yikes. Most models still have it going straight up FL and weakening.

That's the current projection from NOAA right now. We'll get some storms Friday to Tuesday-ish. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/28/hurricane-ian-rain-dc-midatlantic/

My folks live just south of Tampa. The Tampa area has never had a direct hit from a hurricane, and lucky again they've dodged it. Ft Myer, Sanibel - they are hurting, that's for sure.

Just heard in passing that one model has Ian crossing Florida, hitting the Atlantic, intensifying and riding the GUlf Stream before slamming into the Caorlinas. Yikes. Most models still have it going straight up FL and weakening.

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend you watch these webcams on Sanibel (currently in the eyewall, with max winds) and other areas like Fort Meyer - they have the best live feeds.

This is nuts. One of those storm surge cams is fully underwater.

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend you watch these webcams on Sanibel (currently in the eyewall, with max winds) and other areas like Fort Meyer - they have the best live feeds.

Wow.

A just-shy-of-Cat-5 Hurricane is not something I want to weather at home without a very good reason. I think there was some regret this morning when people didn't heed the evacuation calls yesterday and then woke up to a very intense hurricane.

Highly recommend you watch these webcams on Sanibel (currently in the eyewall, with max winds) and other areas like Fort Meyer - they have the best live feeds.

Looks like it’s gonna be bad and too late to evacuate for a lot of people.

We have friends and family in Florida. We're watching it.

I'm watching it on Weather Channel.

This looks very, very bad for the central west coast of FLA. This guy from NOAA, doesn't seem like a dramatic kinda guy, says he's rarely seen storm surges like this in he career. And he's not young.
https://www.facebook.com/NWSNHC/videos/770030537632380

starts at about 50 seconds into the video.