Hurricane Experiences

[Extremeweatherguy]

Everyone tell thier hurricane stories about the hurricanes they have lived through. Have you ever gone through the eye wall? What was your highest winds? What was the damage like in your area?

I will start...

A list of the Hurricanes (not Tropical storms) I have been through:

Erin (inner bands) - FL 1995
Floyd (outer bands) - NC 1999
Charley (right through eye) - FL 2004
Francis (eye wall) - FL 2004
Jeanne (eye wall) - FL 2004
Rita (inner bands) - TX 2005

The worst of the storms I have been through was Charley. It was August 13th, 2004 and I lived in Orlando Florida. Charley was expected to hit Tampa and we were expecting 50-60mph winds in Orlando. That morning the track shifted and we were right in the path. At this point still no one in the city was very worried, we all thought it was just going to be another near miss..we were wrong. At about 2pm a strong, tornadic outer band came through. The band produced 60mph wind gusts and many funnel clouds. It was very scary to watch the TV blinking the word "Tornado warning" for almost all the counties in my vicinity. After the first band passed, some minor damage had already been done (but many still had power). After the first band; there was a lull, and my entire Family was at my house for a party (no one thought anything was really going to happen). By about 5pm another band ripped through and that is when most, but not all, of my family left. By about 7pm it got really really really calm outside. The sky was overcast and the wind was only 1-3mph. I began to wonder to myself "what is going on?". On TV they showed scenes of Punta Gorda littered with debri and trash and they showed the county south of mine being rocked by winds, but yet nothing was happening outside. It was so calm that we actually grilled out with the remaining family (as well as company I had in from Sweden..lol). After eating though, THINGS CHANGED. 40-50mph rain driven gusts began outside, and it steadily increased. By 8:30pm the power was out and the wind gusts were topping 60mph. Our neighbors tree had already fallen onto their mailbox. By 9pm the winds outside were near 70-75mph with gusts to 90-100mph. As I stood in the wind to get a view down my street I realized that most of the trees were down. I also nearly was hit with a flying FOR SALE sign. At this point, the sky was also filled with the greenish~blue lights of popping transformers. The worst came at about 9:30pm. The winds at that point were near 80-90mph sustained gusting to 100-110mph. Things were flying everywhere...our roof was making the weirdest sounds and our front door was buckeling. Our chimney was moaining with the wind. I actually felt scared. By 10:30pm the storm had passed and the winds died back to just 40-50mph. I decided then to go out on a damage survey. All around there were downed trees and power lines. Roofing material and glass were scattered on most walways. Branches littered everything. The worst sight though was a steeple ripped from a church and laid to rest on the ground beside it. There were large metal billboards twisted and collapsed onto the ground. Every house was missing most of its shingles. Some areas were hit with tornadoes embedded within the eyewall. In these areas, the houses were mangled and all the trees (large 100 yr. old oaks) were uprooted. It was a mess, and something I will never forget. I was without power for the following 10 days and without water for about a week. Our house warmed to about 85 degrees and was humid...even with a generator all we could do was turn on a fan or two and keep the fridge half cold (it would not cool down completely). It was surely a crazy time.

Below is a list of the top gusts I saw from all my hurricanes:

Erin = 70mph
Floyd = 60mph (still enough to uproot a large oak in my yard)
Charley = 110mph
Francis = 75mph
Jeanne = 85mph
Rita = 70mph

[StormScanWx]

Hurricanes/I have been through:

Hurricane Erin (1995) Winds 50+ mph
Hurricane Opal (1995) eyewall went directly overhead, 80 mph wind
Hurricane Danny (1998) 5+ inches of rain, resulted in flooding
Hurricane Georges (1998) winds 30-40 mph at most
Hurricane Ivan (2004) eyewall went directly overhead; 105+ mph wind
Hurricane Dennis (2005) eyewall went just to my west, 65 mph wind
Hurricane Katrina (2005) winds 60 mph, eyewall was 80 miles east

[Scorpion]

Outer bands:
Georges:50-60 mph
Floyd: 30-40 mph
Michelle: 25-35 mph
Charley: 25-35 mph
Dennis: 25-35 mph
Katrina: 30-40 mph
Rita: 20-30 mph
Eyewall/Eye:
Irene: 60-70 mph
Frances: 70-80 mph
Jeanne: 75-90 mph
Arlene: 50-60 mph
Wilma: 85-95 mph

[Derek Ortt]

Michelle: Less than TS
Frances: Sustained just below TS force at my apt with gusts into the 50's
Jeanne: Similar to Frances
Dennis: Gusts approaching 70 at my apt
Katrina: Sustained cat 1 at RSMAS with gusts over 90
Rita: Gusts to 70 at RSMAS
Wilma: Sustained over 80 with gusts over 110 at RSMAS. First time personally experiencing destructive hurricane damage

[Hurricaneman]

Gloria 80mph
Bob 105mph
Floyd 60mph
Bertha 60mph

[Opal storm]

Hurricane Erin-Eye went direcly over my house,got upper T.S force/weak cat 1 winds.

Hurricane Opal-Eye passed just to the east of Pensacola,upper T.S force winds here in Pensacola.

Hurricane Ivan-Eastern eyewall passed just to the west of Pensacola,upper cat 1/weak cat 2 winds.Worse hurricane I've ever experienced.

Hurricane Dennis-I was in Milton,fl during Dennis and the eastern eyewall went direcly overhead.Winds were sustained over 100mph and a little stronger than what I experienced during Ivan but not nearly as long and destructive as Ivan.

[b]Tropical storm Arlene-Barely got T.S force winds,a couple of gusts over 50mph

Tropical storm Cindy-Got outerbands from the east side of the storm,winds were stronger than Arlene.

Hurricane Katrina-Recieved weak T.S force winds.

[cycloneye]

Hugo=90 mph,Gusts to 120 mph
Hortense=Torrential rains not strong winds
Georges=79 mph=Gusts to 93 mph at San Juan
Jeanne=60 mph

[facemane]

Camille

Frederick

Elena


Georges

Camille was by far the worst. I evacuated for Katrina.

[lester]

Floyd (1999) I didn't lose any power, even though branches were down
Isabel (2003) Power was out for four days, trees were down

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Henri- TD 30 mph winds
Frances- 65 mph TS

Storms that impacted us:
Jeanne- Hurricane Force Gusts 78+ mph
Gabrielle 2001- 68-73 mph, gusts 75-80 mph in South St. Pete
Pinellas Point Marina
Gordon- 40-60 mph gusts in 2000

Arlene- like a summer thunderstorm, sustained winds
here at maximum were 27 mph, with gusts to 41 mph

Dennis- like a strong summer thunderstorm, maximum
sustained at 44 mph with gusts to 58 mph (courtesy
KSPG & KPIE stations); A small tornado in St. Petersburg
may explain an UNOFFICAL MAXIMUM GUST reading
of 81 mph

Katrina- outer band produces minor damage to trees here...
maximum sustained at 30 mph with gusts to 48 mph (report
courtesy St. Petersburg official reports); tree branches down in
parts of my neighborhood

Rita- outer band produces gusts to 54 mph in southern st. pete (courtesy
highway reporter)

Tammy- rainband crosses the state, produces maximum sustained
winds at 30 mph, gusts to 43 mph

Wilma- Worst storm effects I have personally ever experienced:
Worse than Jeanne and Frances based on what I saw
Gusts:
76 mph (unofficial report from Tampa Bay)
72 mph (Courtesy Eastern Pinellas County Highway personel
thru baynews9)

[thunderchief]

I was in Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne last year. Ivan we had a poor position and couldnt see much, but we caught the eye dead on which was really interesting.

Jeanne was tops though. The coastal monitoring station nearest our position at Vero Beach recorded a gust to 129 mph if I recall. We had a big hospital in front of us and most of its generator powered lights stayed on for the duration, allowing us to see everything... the wind and rain were really epic... and I never knew rain could hurt so much.

[FL Cyclone]

1992 Andrew: I was, at the time, about 2 miles north of the northern eyewall edge. My area probably had Cat 3-4 sustained winds* at the height of the storm. Also, 176 MPH 10-second flight-level winds were at one point recored over my area. I don't know what that translates to for ground winds.

1999 Irene: I wasn't interested in hurricanes back then, so I don't remember much of this one. However, NHC says in their report that TMB saw 52 MPH sustained and a 69 MPH gust.

2005 Katrina: Southeast eyewall went over my house. Sustained winds were 49-53 MPH with gusts at 76-80 MPH.*

2005 Wlma: The southeast outer eyewall came close, but I doubt I got much of it. 62 MPH sustained with gusts of 80 MPH.**


I've also been brushed with numerous cyclones and tropical systems. Some brought tons of rain and some brought nothing more than a lot of breezy winds.


* NHC/NOAA wind data from an airport (Miami Kendall-Tamiami, KTMB) not far from my house.

** TMB's anemometer shows no data shortly before 8:00 AM, but barometric pressure was steadily rising, so the 62/80 MPH is probably about as bad as my area saw.

[NC George]

Oh, lets see what I can remember:

Bertha - eye passed over my house, 2nd worst wind (76 kt gusts)

Fran - worst wind (87 kt gusts). passed west, was in NE quadrant most of storm. Power out the longest - a week.

Dennis - lots o' rain - enough to fill creek beside my house from about 1-2" deep to top of banks- about 8 feet deep.

Floyd - Previously mentioned creek overflows banks, flooded right up to my floorboards, entire yard was a fast moving stream. Almost didn't make it home alive from work - before it even it land (and I live some 80 miles inland) This was a flash flood before the flood of eastern NC you typically see on TV. (51 kt gusts)

Bonnie - west side (passed east) (61 kt gusts)

Isabel - west side (passed east) (44 kt gusts, 34kt sustained)

All winds are from Greenville, NC, the reporting station is 15 miles away from me (and farther away from the coast, likely my winds were a bit higher, especially Fran (as I was inbetween reporting station and the eye.)

[Jim Cantore]

no

I was about 65 miles from Floyds in 1999 when it was passing cape may and atlantic city

[docjoe]

East side of Ivan in P'cola area with probably sustained upper 1 winds. Dead center of Dennis about 10 miles as the crow flies from the coast. Most likely high cat 2 to low cat 3 with higher gusts. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Thank goodness it was a short duration event!!!

docjoe

[recmod]

Extremeweatherguy, your description of your Charley experience was dead-on. Also living in the Orlando area (Seminole County), I too went through the eyewall of Charley with the exact conditions you described. It was the first time I was truly frightened for my personal safety from a weather event. Hearing large objects slam into the roof and outside of the house was terrifying. Having gone through so many close-calls and false alarms, we...like most everyone else in the Orlando area, did not bother to board up the windows before the storm. There was a sense of security living so far inland that we would never actually experience damaging winds from a hurricane. I can tell you that, after going through Charley, my house was completely boarded up for Frances and Jeanne....in fact, the boards were left up for nearly the entire month of September since every week we had another hurricane threatening to strike Florida (early on, Ivan was forecast to make a west coast Peninsula landfall)

I documented my personal experience with Charley in my Hurricane Season 2004-2005 website. The Charley portion is filled with photos I took of the damage at my house and surrounding neighborhood, as well as a photo montage put together 6 months after the hurricane, showing the progress in recovering from the storm.

Here's the url for those interested:

Hurricane Charley

--Lou

[cajungal]

I have not been through the actual eyewall of a hurricane. My closest approach to one was Andrew at the age of 16. Eyewall passed 25 miles to our west. But, the eyewall did scrape the coast of Terrebonne Parish before going inland around Morgan City, LA.

If I was born when Betsy hit, then I would of been right in the eyewall. My mom went through the actual eyewall of Betsy in Thibodaux, LA. Winds got to around the 130 mph range. My mom said it was very scary! She rode out the storm with my grandparents, and her 7 brothers and 3 sisters. Damage was extreme. There was no major damage to their home, but they did get water in their home. I seen the pictures. And I never seen Thibodaux looking the way it did. It looked like a bomb had been dropped on downtown Thibodaux. Piles of debris everywhere and telephone poles down everywhere. My mom said they were with power for nearly 3 weeks. My dad lived in Cut Off, LA in lower Lafourche Parish with his family. They were both teenagers and he did not even meet my mom yet. My dad and my grandparents, along with my aunt and 2 uncles evacuated. They evacuated to my great-grandmother's home in St. Landry. Cut Off is closer to the coast than Thibodaux. 150 mph sustained winds were recorded in Cut Off. My grandparents home was not damaged, but they were one of the few lucky ones. The damage in lower Lafourche was almost catostrophic. They also went 3 weeks without running water, power or phone services.

[Sean in New Orleans]

It's bad. I've been in an eyewall. It's bad. It's not an experience I care to relive.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Extremeweatherguy, your description of your Charley experience was dead-on. Also living in the Orlando area (Seminole County), I too went through the eyewall of Charley with the exact conditions you described. It was the first time I was truly frightened for my personal safety from a weather event. Hearing large objects slam into the roof and outside of the house was terrifying. Having gone through so many close-calls and false alarms, we...like most everyone else in the Orlando area, did not bother to board up the windows before the storm. There was a sense of security living so far inland that we would never actually experience damaging winds from a hurricane. I can tell you that, after going through Charley, my house was completely boarded up for Frances and Jeanne....in fact, the boards were left up for nearly the entire month of September since every week we had another hurricane threatening to strike Florida (early on, Ivan was forecast to make a west coast Peninsula landfall)

I documented my personal experience with Charley in my Hurricane Season 2004-2005 website. The Charley portion is filled with photos I took of the damage at my house and surrounding neighborhood, as well as a photo montage put together 6 months after the hurricane, showing the progress in recovering from the storm.

Here's the url for those interested:

Hurricane Charley

--Lou

very nice site. The pictures do tell the story fairly well, and I enjoyed reading your account of that night and the days to come.

[x-y-no]

Outer bands:

Who can keep track? Frances and Jeanne were pretty impressive last year with upper-end TS winds sustained. Anyway, I've been in Dade county for most of the last 38 years, so - a bunch.

Eyewall:

Andrew - According to post-analysis, my parents' neighborhood where I spent the storm had high-end Cat 3 winds sustained. This was far and away the most intense weather I've ever seen/heard. I was sure the house was going to be totally destroyed. Sounded like freight trains rolling nonstop directly over the house.

Katrina - Landfall was directly over me, but as I'm about a mile and a half inland, top sustained winds were maybe 50 to 55 knots on the back side of the eye.

Wilma - Even though the center tracked well north, the eye was so big that I was solidly in the southeast and south eyewall. That side was pretty dry, so this was mostly a wind event. Top sustained winds were low Cat 1, I think, but with many very intense gusts. The occasional gust got comparably loud to the earlier part of my Andrew experience (when winds were out of the north) but nothing at all like the bad part of Andrew.


But my scariest experience with a tropical cyclone wasn't even a hurricane. In 1988, I was sailing in the Bahamas and got caught in TS Chris. Strong gale, over 40 knots, and it went on and on. I was singlehanded, and the seas were so steep and high (20 feet or so) that I didn't dare run for fear of being swamped from astern. So I reefed both jib and main all the way down and beat into it until it passed. Not an experience I ever want to repeat.