Hurricane Milton.

[The Mighty Mite]

Well with 31 years in Florida we survived another hurricane, actually 2 of them 2 weeks apart with Helene and Milton. With Helene and living in Port Charlotte and even though Helene was about 100 miles out in the Gulf we still had about 60 MPH winds but what was scary was receiving Tornado warnings every 15 minutes for about 5 hours as we were on the side of the feeder bands which produce Tornadoes, fortunately none came close to us. Helene then made it north as far as Ashville NC and everyone knows what happened there, that was as sad as I’ve ever seen in the aftermath of a natural disaster.    
Milton hit us Wednesday night and we had gusts up to 100 MPH, we lost power and cell service was very spotty. Power was back on at 5PM yesterday which surprised me as I was expecting 3 days until we would have power again. No tornadoes as they were again in the feeder bands  mostly on the Atlantic side, last I heard there were at least 40 of them with tons and tons of damage. Other areas here in Charlotte County did not fare as well as us especially if you were near the water, areas along the coast and Charlotte Harbor had severe storm surge with many losing their homes. Downtown Punta Gorda flooded during both storms. Last night I was watching a report and there was a couple living in Charlotte Park in Punta Gorda who were nearing their 90s and they lost their home to water damage, they were such a nice sweet couple and they had no family and no where to go so they were going to sleep on wet mattresses in their garage until they could figure out where to go. I’m sure everyone like me were crying like babies including the reporter who was in tears watching and hearing this sad story. We have a widow lady in our church who lost her home in Englewood during Helene and 2 couples who had mandatory evacuations for Milton, haven’t heard if they still have a home. 
As Milton headed north and made landfall in Siesta Key which wasn’t good for those people but if it had gone further north like original predictions and hit Tampa Bay the storm surge in the Bay itself would have been catastrophic for the city of Tampa. Still can’t believe that the Trop lost it’s dome after 40 years and countless hurricanes.
Like I said we’ve been in Florida 31 years, we still love living here but if anyone has plans of moving to southwest Florida I would advise to look to homes east of interstate 75 away from the Gulf and Bays and make sure you are not in a flood zone, we have had 4 homes in our years here and never lived west of 75.

 

 

 

 

 

[almagest]

Glad you're alright, @The Mighty Mite. We're right outside Jacksonville and luckily haven't had much hurricane damage since we moved here from Old Town in 2022. Worst was our trampoline netting getting destroyed from 100 mph wind gusts during Helene. Milton was about 3 inches of rain and nothing else, though low-lying areas near the St. Johns river and the Atlantic coast had flooding.

Second the flood zone note. Glad we paid attention to that when deciding on our home. Below sea level, within a couple miles of the Gulf or Atlantic, or near any larger bodies of water are a no-go.