Being in Florida for 12 years the Gilken family has been through a lot of hurricanes. We had to put our shutters and boards up on our windows," he said. "I was basically on a ladder three days ago as well. "We're here and we're safe and that's really all that matters," said Justin who was doing work on the karate studio today when I stopped in to talk to them. They're staying with Rochelle's family who also live in the area. She showed me pictures from the 18 hour drive they made 12:30 Thursday morning. We have a plan," Magalhaes said.Īssociated Press writers Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine Curt Anderson and Jason Dearen in Miami and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report."We said we have to take as much as we can possibly get and get out now," said Rochelle. "I think Miami is more prepared than New York for something like that. She was surprised to see cars floating in the streets, and friends living downtown lacked power for weeks. She learned about storm surge's power while living in New York City during Sandy. "Even if the streets do flood, I have enough supplies for a week without leaving my apartment," she said. In Miami, Patricia Magalhaes and her family decided to stay in their high-rise in the waterfront Brickell neighborhood because electricity is typically restored quickly after storms. Hurricane Sandy lost its tropical characteristics before making landfall in 2012, but its enormous size drove catastrophic storm surge onto the New Jersey and New York coastlines.Ī quarter of Florida's population, 6.4 million people, were warned to evacuate low-lying areas. Storm surge flooding up to 28 feet (8 meters) above normal tide levels were associated with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, directly or indirectly causing at least 1,500 deaths, according to the hurricane center.Įven tropical storms can cause major coastal flooding.
The surge helped destroy nearly half the structures along a 40-mile (64 kilometer) stretch of the Florida Keys during the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which killed over 400 people, including World War I veterans working on a railway project. deaths from hurricanes, tropical storms and cyclones over the last half-century, according to a hurricane center study. Storm surge has accounted for half the U.S. God that looks awful."įarther north is the Tampa Bay region, with about 3 million people, a Busch Gardens theme park and baseball spring training grounds for the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays. "Look at Naples, the entire town of Naples is underwater," Klotzbach said. The hurricane center's storm surge maps, showing deep inundation for Naples, worried Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. North of the Everglades lies Naples, an upscale town of about 22,000 that is also the home of the Florida governor. "The Everglades won't stop the potential flooding to inhabited areas," Rhome said. Much of Florida's southwest coast is uninhabited swampland, including a large section of Everglades National Park. Much of that landscape lies less than 10 feet (3 meters) above sea level, and the surge from Irma could be a few inches higher in some areas.
"This is going to sneak up on people," Rhome said.Ībout 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) of coastline from Tampa Bay to the mid-South Carolina coast could see storm surge. Large hurricanes tend to create greater storm surge over a broader area, and coastal features such as bays can act like funnels and back water up into rivers and canals, Rhome said.
The flooding risk will not drop just because Irma's winds might weaken, said Jamie Rhome, head of the hurricane center's storm surge unit. The categories for hurricanes measure wind speeds, and don't say anything about storm surge. It can come from sounds, bays and lakes, sometimes well inland. Storm surge doesn't just come from the ocean. It can happen quickly and far from a storm's center, inundating areas that don't typically flood. Simply put, hurricane winds push water toward shore. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said it was Irma's storm surge threat, not fierce winds, that triggered evacuation orders for 660,000 people in the Miami area.
0 kommentar(er)
