To my Florida neighbors

[smallfoot]

Landfall was shortly after 3pm. It hit near Fort Myers about 230 miles south of me. I've had gusty winds all day and lots of rain. The biggest outer bands of rain are hitting here now and the heaviest winds I'll see will probably be during the night tonight. So far, no damage here but this storm has generated tornadoes east of the hurricane and that would be the biggest danger if they hit here. Hope Laz is ok! He probably lost power along with about 260,000 others down nearer the storm. So far my power has stayed on. My internet has been a little iffy due to satellite service which is normal with storm activity between me and the satellite. I'll update as I can if the power holds up.
The storm hit land at 2 mph winds short of being category 5! I believe there have been only 2 cat 5 storms ever to make landfall, which will tell you how bad this one was. I'll be back!

 

[lowbudget50]

Landfall was shortly after 3pm. It hit near Fort Myers about 230 miles south of me. I've had gusty winds all day and lots of rain. The biggest outer bands of rain are hitting here now and the heaviest winds I'll see will probably be during the night tonight. So far, no damage here but this storm has generated tornadoes east of the hurricane and that would be the biggest danger if they hit here. Hope Laz is ok! He probably lost power along with about 260,000 others down nearer the storm. So far my power has stayed on. My internet has been a little iffy due to satellite service which is normal with storm activity between me and the satellite. I'll update as I can if the power holds up.
The storm hit land at 2 mph winds short of being category 5! I believe there have been only 2 cat 5 storms ever to make landfall, which will tell you how bad this one was. I'll be back!

Thanks for the update!! Stay safe

 

[lazarat]

Yea my power went out at 3pm right after my last post the storm skirted just to the south and I am on the weaker side and it was bad enough seems to be calming down a little here as it drives up I4 to Orlando and beyond

 

[smallfoot]

Good Laz! About 4am here. I've been in the upper, outer band stuff all night. Their estimates are running that rain is falling in amounts of 4 to 7 inches per hour. That's a huge amount of water. I went out yesterday afternoon to check our road in here. It was in fairly good shape, but has some washout in places. It was still passable then, but damn, it's been raining here for 24 hours now non-stop. The path of Ian is still going to miss me with the eye, but I'm staying right in the heavy rain band, the heaviest of which hasn't passed me yet. It's a slow storm...8-9mph in forward movement. the eye hit land at 3pm yesterday and this beast still hasn't made it across the state. Looks like it may exit over around Oak Hill/New Smyrna Beach area and out to sea. I'm still gusty here but not what I'd call dangerous winds. The problem is saturation. When the already wet land gets saturated, the water flows horizontally. That's what causes floods here. We don't really have any high land in this area. So we don't have gravity issues. I doubt you'll find any news articles on any flood related issues being due to melting snow fall and horrendous effects of downhill flow... When our ground gets saturated, the tree roots are easy to defeat with wind! That's how the power goes out.
Last night, sometime between 9-11 the power went out. Has been ok since, although since I started this post, it went out again. So, I'll close now. On battery...I'll be back!

 

[lazarat]

Typing this out from my phone and yes smallfoot it’s taking forever to move out of here. It’s 5am I just did a walk around a lot of tree branch’s but my house and barn made it through did not lose one shingle I have the hurricane asphalts and everything looks good. I really lucked out on this it was a little worse than Irma but my son in laws mom in Sarasota is ok but lots of damage. Praying for those that have been as well as about to. Good luck smallfoot

 

[DozerII]

All I can say is wow 4-7 in of rain an hour, stay safe guys.

 

[26Troadster]

glad your safe smallfoot, i got friends down in the storm that i haven't heard from yet.

 

[bob w]

smallfoot, I learn a lot from you. Excellent report. You and Laz stay safe.

 

[lowbudget50]

Seen some of the video footage from down there, crazy stuff

 

[Couper]

Glad you guys are staying safe!

 

[smallfoot]

Alrighty then! Lost power about 7:15am and just got it back 11 hours later. The rains have slowed some, but still getting wind gusts here. Rained for about 30+ hours now. My road in is under water in 2 places but it hasn't washed out yet. That will eventually subside when it quits. We are in a river basin and the water moves west through here but we get water from our east side which will take about 2 days for that to move through. We'll be wet for a few...
When it moved across the state it dropped back to tropical storm status and now that it's back over the Atlantic it just made it back up to hurricane strength, but only slightly (75mph). Last radar I saw had it off the coast east of St. Augustine about 100 miles east of the coast and slightly north of me. That puts it about the same distance from me as it's been the whole time. Now I'm on the calmer side anyway.
I went out this am early after I lost power to check if it was our problem or the whole area and found trees down, but not on any of our power lines. Met one of my neighbors who had been doing the same thing and he verified the road was good out to the highway while I cut and moved 4 trees across the road. Was able to glean a couple of logs to mill into lumber on that outing. I don't have any real damage to buildings. Limbs everywhere so I'll be on that tomorrow. Thanks for the well wishes ya'll. I was able to save all the refrigerator stuff by using ice I had prepared before the storm, so I guess I'm calling it good.
Pray for South Carolina! It's headed their way!

 

[DozerII]

Glad to hear your ok Small, Ian is not done yet. Be careful during the clean up.

 

[lowbudget50]

Glad to hear all is safe. I was wondering if it would go back across your state and into the water and regain strength. What a weird deal, mother nature does what she wants

 

[bob w]

I'm a Facebook friend with one of Donsrods twin sons. They are all safe. Don Jr. said all his cars got flooded. Looks like they were in a basement garage of an apartment bldg. Don Sr. sold his roadster and I would guess he is fairly inactive hot rod-wise.

 

[lazarat]

As of this writing I am still without power. Yesterday neighbors helped cleaning each other’s properties of debris mostly tree branch’s and limbs. It was nice chilly weather and afterwards I took a bucket shower, ibecause I’m on well water so I have plenty of bottled water but before I lost power I filled up and boiled some for storage.

I also found a couple sterno cans I forgot I had so I’m able to heat water for coffee and I am just about through all my prepared perishables. Next is canned food but I hear some local eateries are open. Today is a beautiful and cool day I guess the storm blew all the 90 degree heat away so windows open and AC not needed. But what I am going through is nothing compared to Fort Myers so I am counting my blessings.

 

[smallfoot]

Glad you're handling it ok Laz! I just made another pass on the road with the loader to clear debris. Opened up another flow way to move more water out of here. We have a stoppage where one of the land owners that does not live here refused to listen to us when we told him not to fill in the swale. Lots of foliage lost but non of my neighbors suffered any real damage. I took a few shots of the road where the main road and my buddy's driveway pulls off. Right across from him is where the flow way was shut down. We put culverts in the move the water years ago, but the guy that put his drive way in to vacant land used the wetland and filled for a drive. Left a little ditch for about 6 feet around the end of the culvert. Water can't do anything but back up until it backs up over the road.

 

[lazarat]

Not cool that must be a real mess. I have a large deep wetlands runoff in back of my house use to be an orange grove in the 30s. It is fed by the water that runs downhill on my street. The good news is I will never have neighbors in back of my house. But I do have mosquitos coyotes and even a wild hog or two. It’s about 20 acres of wet jungle in the middle of town.

 

[23crate]

holy floating tragedy Batman ..

ive been following this on New Zealand News,,

thinking of youse from downunder ,, the footage shown to us last night was mind blowing ,, described as a war zone and seriously looked it !! totally tragic!!!

good to see you Sou East-ians here have made it through ok and hope others are same !!!

wild weather !! great reporting thanks !!!

 

[Couper]

Small, Laz be careful. Sorry you guys are dealing with this.

 

[smallfoot]

Thanks for all the good thoughts guys! I've been here all my life, it's kinda routine. This year has been a good year until this one. I don't think any hit us this year. But how things change. I've been advised that all my family is good. My neighbors are good. My sister is still without power but everybody else is good on that. Lots of people probably lost all they had on this one, some of them, their lives. I haven't been checking the news much today so I don't know a total number of fatalities but it was only at 21 deaths last night that could be confirmed...that will probably rise. All the flood waters have not receded yet. Our culverts are handling it and I opened another yesterday. But we still have a gallon or two headed this way from the east. They expect the St. Johns River to rise at least 2 1/2'. It runs north for about 1/2 the length of this state. That water will be coming through here for days, maybe weeks.
Again, thanks for the care!