10 Comments

Ian was Charley on major steroids with the accompanying 'roid rage. Punta Gorda surprisingly didn't suffer as badly as our neighbors both north and south of us did but then we don't tend to get much in the way of storm surge thanks to the barrier islands and the peninsula on the far side of Charlotte Harbor. Still scary and destructive. Here's hoping we miss any hits for the rest of this season.

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I remember uss talking about Ian and your brief evacuation to SE Florida a year ago; we were talking for weeks about the damage and recovery efforts. A year later, how's the lanai and whatever else needing fixing coming along?

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The missing window has been ordered and will be ready in about 2 more weeks. It is a large 70"L x 40" W custom window so had to be special ordered. I wanted to just fill in the missing window with wood panels but management wouldn't go with that. I have just a bit of siding below the window to be replaced and everything will be done. Glad to see that Philippe seems to be doing an about face and heading into the Atlantic where before they thought he might come into the Caribbean and maybe the Gulf. Hoping this season continues to be damage free.

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It was never a certainty about how far west it would get even as a weak storm. In fact, the original model outlook was for a major hurricane heading NORTH. Then the whole thing swung wildly to a weak storm maybe headed for P.R. but then angling more NW to north from THERE. Now it's gone back to the northward solution, and if it gets strong, it may possibly eat Rina and use THAT energy to be a northward bound strong hurricane. Usually, once models return to the ORIGINAL solution, oftentimes that's the solution that ultimately prevails, but as we know about these models, they don't always work that way, as we saw from Michael, Ian, and other storms. So, you can't rest on your laurels, Laura; you have to see how the updates go, but if the trend is your friend, so far the trends look good.

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I keep a very close eye on all of these systems during the season and as you know have had to make last minute decisions regarding what to do when they decide to do something different than expected.. Just part of living down here. I know several of my neighbors who hadn't lived here that long and never went through anything like Ian. They decided it was more than they could stand, sold and left. It is unpleasant but nowhere near as bad as other places.

I hadn't been through a major hurricane before but I saw the house after Charley hit when dad was living down here so I knew what I could expect. I don't know why people don't research an area better before deciding to move. Dad chose this place due to the low probability of storm surge and he was right. A friend of mine wanted to be on an island and didn't take hurricanes into account, she lost her home to Ian.

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Anyone who wants to live in Florida permanently should always take hurricanes into account. Same situation if you want to live in the East Coast places like Scituate, Mass, or Fire Island, NJ, places that are prone to floods and surge. Just ask those who were hurt by Sandy in 2012. If you live on the water, especially, ALWAYS take hurricanes and nor'easters into account, anywhere on the East Coast.

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Sep 29, 2023·edited Sep 29, 2023

Definitely and on the Gulf too. Before I chose to move here I checked out weather, demographics of all kinds, topography, flora and fauna, etc. I knew everything would be different here and wanted a decent perspective beforehand.. Floors me when people come here and expect it to be like where they were before but sunny and warm. Kind of like when they move here and find they have to deal with alligators in the lakes or rivers. Hello people, this is Florida, water=alligators, you can't get rid of them. We had an 8 footer that lived quite peacefully in the lake, never bothered anyone because we knew how to live with him. Snowbirds freaked, called a trapper, got rid of him and 3 more promptly moved in and they squawked again. LMFAO.

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