Hurricane Ian update in Cape Coral: Mass destruction on the Isabelle Canal

[PalmatierMeg]

Hello again, at last! I know Hurricane Ian is so 3 weeks ago but I just returned from a time travel trip back to the 19th century, courtesy of that behemoth younger brother of Hurricane Charley. Palm lovers are some of the greatest people on earth and I really missed y'all.Thanks for expressions of concern but I could only pick up the pieces in our little 0.61 ac of (former) Paradise. But good news! My husband, son, daughter-in-law, two cats and I rode out the tempest with only minimum damage to my plain but sturdy cracker house in the middle of Cape Coral. I give thanks for a builder who constructed only a few houses per year but made them to Miami-Dade hurricane code before anyone else heard of it - concrete block with a simple cap roof, no soaring elevations, gables, cupolas, dormers or fussy frou-frou frills. For hours and hours the world came apart outdoors but the house didn't rattle, creak, groan or shudder no matter what the storm threw at it. Current wisdom says Ian was a cat 4 storm but I think what passed over us was every bit a cat 5. Still, I'm no meterologist. My advice: invest in a metal roof if you live in hurricane country. And start to believe in storm surge if you live near the coast

Before a hurricane the media tell you to fill a bathtub with water, which I always did before draining the tub after the storm. What they don't tell you is why but if you have imagination you can figure it out. People 150 years ago didn't have running water and neither did Ian's survivors. But one bathtub doesn't hold enough water to flush toilets when lack of water drags on for days. Forturnately, we could plod on down to the Isabelle Canal with buckets. And after a long day of clearing tattered vegetation you relish a shower but without running water.....somehow sanitizer and wipes lack pizazz. Forget the canal; no one swims in them and my husband saw a 5-6' gator beyond the seawall the day after Ian. We started to get a trickle of water a few days later but not to drink - boil water notices everywhere. After 3-4 days we could take cold showers.

Phones were useless. We couldn't call out, no one could call in. After a few days sporadic service returned. We had $200 worth of boat gas for our generator, which we ran all day, then shut down bedtime. At night we had to lock up the generator in the garage (people steal them and some places had a looter problem). Never run a generator indoors. We were down to a couple days of gas when power finally came on a week later.

Once we had electrical power we had advanced to the mid 20th-century. You know, black and white TVs on antennas so you could watch "Wells Fargo Days" and "Dennis the Menace". That's when our time travel back to 2022 hit a huge snag: no internet service. So, no banking, Amazon Prime, Netflix, stock trading, FB or PalmTalk. And that's where we stayed for almost two weeks until the elusive, tightlipped Xfinity/Comcast kept us until Sunday morning. But we're back and not in a hurry to check out the 19th century again.

We woke up the morning after to find we were regressed 150 years into the past. You don't contemplate how much you depend on modern conveniences until you find yourself without electricity, water, phone, fuel and PalmTalk. Cape Coral's electrical grid was destroyed, water system shattered and contaminated, limited gasoline that couldn't be pumped without power, landlines and cell phones rendered useless, and internet a thing of the future. Roads covered with boats, trees, debris and stoplights, sirens screaming all around. That's what happens when you lose 150 years overnight.

All the above is just the good parts. If our house made it through endless hours in the eyewall of Ian, our palm and tropical tree paradise was pretty much destroyed - that includes palms and tropical trees. I though Irma dealt us a crippling blow but she was just Ian's warmup act. Most people don't know it but Hurricane Ian made landfall precisely where Charley did in 2004: the tiny island of Cayo Costa. And days later, a revitalized Ian made another landfall north of Charleston, SC as had Charley. Peas in a pod and both originally predicted to hit Tampa. I don't think Ft. Myers/Cape Coral will survive a third storm that starts out with Tampa on its radar.

But this is a Discussing Palms topic and I am remiss if I don't do so. People often spend hours discussing nuances of cold hardiness (remember palms can be cool sensitive and heat sensitive, too). There is precious little said about storm tolerance and I hope to add to that limited body of knowledge because while some of my palms took on Ian with gusto, others failed spectacularly and should be given special consideration in storm prone areas. And I will also address the miserable track record of tropical flowering trees because almost all our trees looked like they'd been hit by cruise missiles. When they shattered and fell they took out palms that might otherwise have survived.

My proof that Ian was not your garden variety hurricane is one of my 50' tall Veitchia joannis in the back yard jungle that after hours in Ian's eyewall shattered into 4 vertical quadrants, then broke horizontally and came to rest on our roof. I have never see a palm do that (my husband's snakewood tree did, however). The joannis sibling a few feet away survived. I believe our back yard jungle, despite massive storm damage, helped protect the south side of the house during the worst of the storm. Also, Sabal Row did its thing again and shielded the east side of the house - a lot of broken leaves but every palm standing. In fact, all my Sabals stood up to Ian. And all the plantings in the Garden Lot took the brunt of Ian, which saved the west side of the house.

Veitchia joannis destroyed by Hurricane Ian, Cape Coral, FL, 2022

 

Above: Note the 50' Veitchia in the background survived

My husband and son working to remove Veitchia from roof the morning after Ian

[PalmatierMeg]

During the latter half of Hurricane Ian when the winds turned from south to west, we were able to step out on our front (north) lanai to take photos. Eventually, we could risk opening the back shutters and get a peek of the damage to part of the jungle.

Photos of Hurricane Ian from front lanai, Cape Coral, FL, 2022

Photos of Hurricane Ian from back lanai, Cape Coral, FL, 2022

If you look closely at this photo you can see whitecaps on the Isabelle Canal

 

 

 

 

[Looking Glass]

Glad you made it through OK.   Gotta love a short, squat, concrete house with a metal roof in hurricane country.  Palms can be regrown, and it’s sad to see them go, but houses are harder to replace, lives even more so.

I’m guessing rainforest palms took a beating and then some?   I’m always interested in the storm tolerance of various palms.  

Good luck with the clean up.  Looks like you’ll have your hands full for a bit.   

 

[Dypsisdean]

So glad to hear from you again. And so sad to see the damage. Thanks for the story and the pics.

While the devastation has to be depressing, I didn't hear any - just a resilience to prevail. I am looking forward to pics a year from now when new things have been planted - and with the growth rate Florida provides, your garden with a new personality will be well on its way to paradise again.

[Barry]

Meg,

Glad to hear you, your family and house survived. This was definitely worse than Irma! I didn’t live here for Charlie, but was here the day after helping friends. It is defeating to get the yard destroyed again, but like you said, a lot of people didn’t survive the storm and/or took massive storm surge. I was at customers houses today that took 6-8 ft of surge, absolutely crazy to see the damage. If there is anything I can do to help? Let me know.

[RedRabbit]

I’m relieved to hear you’re okay and didn’t have serious damage. Even your garden doesn’t look that bad, all things considered. What are your plans for the garden now?

[JohnAndSancho]

Glad you're ok! Welcome back. 

[Tyrone]

Glad you’re alright and able to talk about it. Your garden will rebound and be amazing again very soon I reckon. 

[JLM]

So good to see you again! Long road to recovery ahead, but when things like this happen at an extreme level like i did with Ian, do the areas that got hit ever really recover? New Orleans i would say still technically hasnt recovered from Katrina.

[sonoranfans]

Glad to see everyone is safe and your home is secure Meg.  The wounds of garden damage will heal, but I know that was was a nasty storm and healing requires time when so much is invested in time, memories, and sweat.   Fortunately, things grow fast in south florida so a new chapter is around the corner.

[Merlyn]

I'm glad to see you and your family are safe and well, despite the ferocity of that storm and the obvious outside damage!  I was just talking to a coworker on Monday morning about the storm, he has a friend that ended up with 8 feet of water in his house.  They had just managed to get back in to survey the destruction.  I was just saying that a "PalmTalk friend" still hadn't checked in after the storm...and about 30 minutes later there you are! 

To be honest, the palm damage looks less than I had expected.  I'm sure that there's a lot more than is visible in the photos.  But a little bit if new screening and it'll be as good as new!  Well...maybe by next summer most of them will be looking like normal. 

FYI - I ended up in the 15th century too, briefly.  But in our area (NW Orlando) cell phone service was ok but a bit slow.  So I could still do USB tethering and run the computers on generator power, just with the equivalent of 1990s dialup speeds.  And my generator is just barely big enough to run the well, so I didn't need to do the gallon-bucket-to-flush that often.  I'm just glad it was a cold front that pushed the storm, so it was only in the 70s here for a couple of days.  After the 1st day most of the gas stations had power, so it was fairly easy to refill the 5g cans every day.  I'd need a lot more big VP Racing fuel jugs for more than a couple of days on generator...or start siphoning from the old creepy van... 

[ck_in_fla]

I'm on the Northeast side of Orlando in Winter Springs.  The power outages after Hurricane Charley were brutal.  So, when I retired, I started looking at whole house generators.  I finally decided on a 22KW Generac.  I have tested it by killing the main power to the house.  The transfer switch takes between 3 and 5 seconds to detect the outage, fire up the generator and actually transfer the load.  Actually, it is a thing of beauty...

I have no gas service to my subdivision.  So, I have two 120 gallon propane tanks installed up against my shed.  I designed the tanks so that I can actually refuel without having to shut the generator down if necessary.  I have been working with the people who service the generator and they tell me that at my "normal" power load, I can run between 8 and 11 days assuming both tanks are full.

I have the electronic monitor on both tanks and have set it to automatically notify the gas vendor to come refuel when the supply reaches 50%.  The generator runs automatically every Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 PM.  A report is generated showing how each component performed during the test.  This report is sent to my cell phone and to the service vendor.

I did have a power outage last summer where we lost power around 8PM and didn't get it back until around 11:30 PM.  Of course, my house was the only home on the street with power.  And, I had all of my exterior lights on.  The next morning, one of my neighbors said "I saw you showing off last night".  🙂

The power company (Duke Energy, in my case) provides 200 amp service to the house.  My generator provides 92 amp service to the house.  So, the only limitation in the event of a power outage would be to avoid running the heavy power consumption devices all at once.  But, I will have hot showers, air conditioning, internet (assuming Spectrum stays up) and TV (again assuming Spectrum stays up).

The Generac seems to be the best unit on the market.  And, I have all the automation installed to get fuel and service (even if I forget to make the call).  I hope I never have to use it.  But, it makes me happy just knowing it is there in case...

[Looking Glass]

I’ve got a Generac whole-house generator also… hooked into the gas line.  It’s a beast for sure.  We get outages periodically from electrified iguanas and palms hitting the power lines.  It pops on the same way.   Pretty convenient.  I’d guess half of the neighbors have a generator of some sort like this.  The house is that 1 story, squat concrete block with impact doors and windows, and roof strapping, and the roof is flat asphalt tiles.   

A 15 foot storm surge would swamp me though.  

When it’s time for a new roof, I’ll upgrade to metal for sure.  Hurricanes are a fact of life here.  Every year is a roll of the dice.  

[ck_in_fla]

39 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

I’ve got a Generac whole-house generator also… hooked into the gas line.  It’s a beast for sure.  We get outages periodically from electrified iguanas and palms hitting the power lines.  It pops on the same way.   Pretty convenient.  I’d guess half of the neighbors have a generator of some sort like this.  The house is that 1 story, squat concrete block with impact doors and windows, and roof strapping, and the roof is flat asphalt tiles.   

A 15 foot storm surge would swamp me though.  

When it’s time for a new roof, I’ll upgrade to metal for sure.  Hurricanes are a fact of life here.  Every year is a roll of the dice.  

We had a fire back in 2004.  Nothing left but the foundation and the exterior walls.  So, we had to completely rebuild the home.  So, all of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew code modifications were followed.  My builder told me that if a storm like Andrew were to come through my neighborhood, my home would likely be the only one left standing.  I have the rebar in the walls and the poured cells every 4 feet.  Also, the special roof clips and a rood designed to resist the winds of a hurricane.

I will be 70 in a few months.  So, when I retired, I reasoned that I would reach a point where I wouldn't be able to get out there and nail the plywood to protect the big front window on my home.  So, I got one of those roll-down steel shutters installed.  I press the button on the remote and the steel shutter rolls down to protect the window.

One thing you may want to consider is your fuel source.  Even if I had gas service to my home, I would have had one tank installed.  I wouldn't have wanted to invest all that money and then because of an interruption of the gas service find myself sitting in the dark.  You may want to think about that.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one to have one of these installed.  🙂

[Looking Glass]

25 minutes ago, ck_in_fla said:

We had a fire back in 2004.  Nothing left but the foundation and the exterior walls.  So, we had to completely rebuild the home.  So, all of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew code modifications were followed.  My builder told me that if a storm like Andrew were to come through my neighborhood, my home would likely be the only one left standing.  I have the rebar in the walls and the poured cells every 4 feet.  Also, the special roof clips and a rood designed to resist the winds of a hurricane.

I will be 70 in a few months.  So, when I retired, I reasoned that I would reach a point where I wouldn't be able to get out there and nail the plywood to protect the big front window on my home.  So, I got one of those roll-down steel shutters installed.  I press the button on the remote and the steel shutter rolls down to protect the window.

One thing you may want to consider is your fuel source.  Even if I had gas service to my home, I would have had one tank installed.  I wouldn't have wanted to invest all that money and then because of an interruption of the gas service find myself sitting in the dark.  You may want to think about that.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one to have one of these installed.  🙂

I’ve thought about that….  The gas lines can be ripped up by roots when trees topple.   At that point, we’ll be sweating and indoor camping.   But I hear ya on the concerns.  A tank would also be a good idea….   

The house here was rebuilt too, with the hurricane upgrades a few years back before we bought it.   

[MrTropical]

Glad to hear you're O.K.

Welcome back. 

10-20-2022

[NickJames]

So glad you’re okay. 

[palmfriend]

Meg, 

I am glad that you and your family are doing well.

Iam sure the garden will bounce back, some palms faster than others - your documentation about the Carribean palms in your other thread is very interesting and

educative - but I guess that is part of life the people in Florida have to live with. We over here facing the same phenomenon (typhoons) every year as well 

with the same result: often power outage, no internet and no ships in the habour for many days - meaning running out of fresh food/milk etc. very quickly,

eating mostly only cup noodles/instant soups while hoping that the drinking water we bought ahead will last until the first ship arrives again...

Those days after a typhoon are exactly as you described, somehow a time travel back to another age without electric power and internet - 

interesting for two/three days but then it starts to annoy... 

 

Meg, despite the damage your garden took I hope it will be soon again a source of joy and vigor for you and your husband -

 

regards 

Lars

 

 

[shminbabe]

Thank you for the informative post of your harrowing experience. Heartbreaking about the trees, for sure. So glad your home, property, and loved ones are otherwise fine. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by shminbabe