Questions about Hurricanes for Long Time SoWal Residents

[yippie]

I found a few maps of our hurricane history that are kinda scary when you look at them. The first is of the 04 season and the second is of the "Parade of Storms" leading up to Opal.
http://www.sowal.com/bb/showpost.php?p=277909&postcount=58

We had hurricane Erin during the summer, followed by Opal at the first of October. Can't remember if other tropical systems affected us. We were all caught off guard with Opal. We went to bed thinking it was going past us to NO, and woke up throwing belongings into cars for evacuation.

MUCH better information systems today! phew!

 

[florida girl]

Anybody remember the hurricane we survived 3 times? What was it called?

 

[Bobby J]

yeah they are not so bad, i have stayed in our house through two tropical storms, just lots of wind and rain. heck, fff and i think it's a great time to go out and look at property, you will know what property floods! just ask bobby j!

It is the best time to look at property. We have discovered if it looks like a big storm we are out here. Have not really figured out the reason to stay. A true disaster to me is no power in my home with wife, son and 2 teenage daughters! My neighbor stays and calls me when the power is back. One year, I went to Orlando and surfed over at Sebastian Inlet, played at Disney World and finally flew to Costa Rica. It was my best Hurricane ever. When we returned we went back to work and never missed a beat!

 

[jodiFL]

Anybody remember the hurricane we survived 3 times? What was it called?

I believe that would have been "ELENA". zigzagged 50 miles offshore then finally crossed the state and went on to hit New York. Labor Day weekend if I am not mistaken, sometime late 80's.
It was in 85.

 

[florida girl]

Yea, that was it, there were t shirts that proclaimed, "I survived Hurricane Elena 3 times!" I remember the last time they went around with a loud speaker to evacuate, I just rolled over and went back to sleep! By then, after 3 calls, I'd had enough. If I died, I died!

 

[jodiFL]

I have a picture of about 15 of us sitting in the middle of Hwy 98 (Old 98 now) in front of the Beachcomber bar laughing about sitting there, drinks in hand, not a car in sight, on Labor Day weekend.
just remembered something else, the sheriffs dept. told us they would issue us "body tags" if we refused to leave and we all hooked these plastic tags with our names to our big toe. LOL

 

[Dave Rauschkolb]

I have lived here in Sowal since 1986 and before that, in Fort Walton since 1971. I have never had any damage to any of mine or my parent's homes. I think there is some danger of a branch or someones lawn chair breaking a window but I've never had that happen. During Opal I had every leaf on every tree blown off my yard in old Seagrove but no damage to my house/windows.

Basically, I believe most damage comes from water in low lying areas and tornadoes within the storms. If it is a Cat 1 through 3 the winds are not bad enough to damage your home unless you have loose shingles, poor construction, live in a trailer or something like that. If it is a Cat 4 or 5 your roof will probably blow off and any amount of plywood on the windows is going to make no difference at all. I think people spend far too much time, money and energy on running around "boarding up the house". I makes everyone feel better but broken windows are rarer than most think. I am not advocating anyone do what I have, this is just my personal experience. At any time during even a Cat 1 storm a tornado can take your roof off boarding up or not.

Now, having said that, the above opinion reflects my feeling about stuff, houses and the things that have to do with stuff. I have another opinion about life and limb altogether. I, personally would NEVER stay in any house during any storm above a Cat 1; I have done it and it is too stressful for me. While I am willing to risk a broken window or two, I believe the chances of tornadoes within hurricanes is far to dangerous to roll the dice on. The past few storms I have stayed in large, multi-story concrete buildings. I don't normally evacuate as long as I can stay in a big concrete building; non of which I have ever seen blow over in a storm unless the Gulf was pounding on it like on Pensacola beach.

A lot of the tornado's happen north of here after the storm meets the resistance of the land. If you do evacuate go in the opposite direction of the predicted track IE: If it is going north toward Atlanta, go to Houston or Orlando/Jacksonville way. We have been lucky no direct hits have come to Sowal as far as I know. Time will tell this year.

 

[30A Skunkape]

I believe that would have been "ELENA". zigzagged 50 miles offshore then finally crossed the state and went on to hit New York. Labor Day weekend if I am not mistaken, sometime late 80's.
It was in 85.

Elena did the crazy zig-zag, but she ended up coming ashore in Louisiana;I remember that day well, we rode it out but it wasn't too bad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Elena
I associate it with Ivan Lendl (sp?) winning the US Open. I think Juan hit us soon after and it caused major flooding.

 

[Beachlover2]

Oh - I so remember this one - we were at Walt Disney World for my first and only time with our son and the park was empty because of the the crazy pattern Elena was following - We literally ran from ride to ride with no wait - my son loved it. When we got to the park those days we were told that we might have to evacuate at anytime and there would be no refunds. But we barely got more than a shower or two. My son who is now 30 still talks about how we had the park almost to ourselves.

 

[NotDeadYet]

The past few storms I have stayed in large, multi-story concrete buildings. I don't normally evacuate as long as I can stay in a big concrete building;

Where do you find one of these south of the bay so you can return to your property without waiting on the 331 bridge to reopen?