Milton

[PalmatierMeg]

I've already "hurricane cut" my big Alfredii yesterday, and am going to lop off any queen fronds that might hit my roof.  Otherwise my yard area is pretty much cleaned up (per @Merlyn)

 

I strongly suggest you stake your alfredii really well. I lost all my juvenile alfredii to Hurricanes Irma and Ian. They are so top-heavy before they trunk that major hurricane winds rip their stems off their growing plates - instant and unrevocable death. Better safe than sorry. I will not plant more Beccariophoenix.

 

 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

On 10/6/2024 at 11:49 AM, PalmatierMeg said:

Shades of Irma! Well, Irma came up from the south and Milton apparently from the SW. Until Ian Irma was the worst we saw. Tons of landscape damage. I expect no less from our latest storm. We’ve begun the process of closing shutters. While some people watch the NFL we made a last minute supply run. So many people are just not too bright. Mon. & Tues they will panic because stores and service stations are stripped bare. Did anyone learn a thing from Helene? Guess we’ll find out.

Excuse my timing. By early afternoon Sunday service stations and groceries and hardware stores were mobbed. Lines of cars miles long. Worse Monday, worse again today. Could be a lot of Darwin Awards on tap a couple days from now.

"Ermengard, stop sniveling. Don't cry on the valises. We're 7 minutes late. All aboard, all aboard!"    The late Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly

 

 

[miamicuse]

I brought in most of the orchids, and some understory palms in pots like Chamaedorea deckeriana and Cyrtostachys renda, had a bucket truck service to remove all the coconuts, and the hardest part for me was taking down two hanging staghorn ferns, really heavy.

[flplantguy]

Small plants are inside and larger ones are packed in against the house.  The orchid stands come inside and then its done. Time to leave (if the trend changes northward) to go to an employee shelter too. My biggest concern are some of the closer trees on the north side of the house, and the new house is still manufactured and subject to the capabilites and care of who built it, so if either of those is an issue i could have problems. The reaction up here was the strongest since Irma, with all the brushes with majors lately it does feel like we are "leveling up the challenge" each time.  A lot of traffic north, and a few crazies too.  I hope everyone and their gardens do better then anticipated.  Can't really hope for unscathed at this point with it looking like it is trying to reach a secondary cat 5 max.

[waykoolplantz]

Screen enclosure 'hurricane feature' has 12 8x8' screens that can be removed to let the wind pass thru...pulled those panels and closeed the shutters

[Cindy Adair]

1 hour ago, waykoolplantz said:

Screen enclosure 'hurricane feature' has 12 8x8' screens that can be removed to let the wind pass thru...pulled those panels and closeed the shutters

Good to hear from you Mike and hope you, your dogs and cat and house and plants are all minimally effected by Milton!

[kinzyjr]

Got everything locked up and threw away the key.  Going to be a bad one.  Hope all of you stay safe and property undamaged.

[Cindy Adair]

I will be checking this topic to hear from everyone after Milton exits, so please let us hear when you can. 

[Merlyn]

2 hours ago, waykoolplantz said:

Screen enclosure 'hurricane feature' has 12 8x8' screens that can be removed to let the wind pass thru...pulled those panels and closeed the shutters

Now THAT is a palm lover's patio!      Hopefully it's far enough North of you that there will only be a couple of feeder bands with some 30-45mph gusts.

[Merlyn]

Again, nothing really changed overnight.  Current projected path is to land around Sarasota as a Cat3 at 2AM and cross exiting around Melbourne as a Cat1 around 10AM.  It's supposed to be moving East pretty fast after bouncing off the cold front hanging over Gainesville.  You can see the heavy shear on the radar map.  It's hard to guess how far out the winds will go out on the North side of it.  Right now the hurricane is pushing the cold front back North towards Jax.  If the hurricane wins that fight then it's going to track further North towards Orlando.

I was out trimming fronds from the two remaining Queens on the South side of the house.  I realized that I was planning on cutting these down anyway, so I butchered one of them.  If the track is looking further North later this afternoon I might lop off another frond or two from the Alfredii:

  @kinzyjr, @D. Morrowii and @NatureGirl I hope you are all prepared and sail (figuratively) through this unscathed! 

[Palmarum]

Getting tornado warnings all morning here in Broward...

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Palmarum said:

Getting tornado warnings all morning here in Broward...

 

 

[SeanK]

5 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

Got everything locked up and threw away the key.  Going to be a bad one.  Hope all of you stay safe and property undamaged.

When all seems hopeless, be thankful you don't live in Tornado Alley where the warnings are only 15 minutes prior to landfall.

[NC_Palms]

Wishing all my Florida friends the best of luck. Please take this seriously, its going to be a deadly storm. 

[Silas_Sancona]

18 minutes ago, SeanK said:

When all seems hopeless, be thankful you don't live in Tornado Alley where the warnings are only 15 minutes prior to landfall.

15 minutes??  Was more like 1-2 hours. In KS and OH at least.   More if you're adept at reading the sky.

Kind of miss easily being able to head out on afternoon / night time chases each spring.

'Canes, 'Naders, Quakes, and/or the threat of Wildfires?  Prefer the threat of the last 3 over the 1st.

Good luck out there everyone.

[Jimbean]

There's a tornado outbreak right now ahead of this storm for south and central Florida.  

[Looking Glass]

Getting close now.  Down this way, we’ll likely just get an inch of rain and some 60mph winds, unless you’re unlucky enough to get smacked by a tornado.   

South of Tampa…..  ouch.   Stay safe and good luck.  

I’ll give my standard last, last-minute hurricane advice….  If you have to retreat to the attic, make sure to bring a hatchet, claw hammer, crowbar….  Something to chop your way up and out as the water rises.  

[PalmatierMeg]

At the moment the eye of Milton passes offshore of Cape Coral, heading north. Where will it land? Its path shifted south overnight and put the Cape nearer the firing line. Now it looks like another wobble will shift it north again. And we're still 12 hours from landfall.

Even so, we have been having multiple tornadoes touch down all over SWFL. Many of them were caught on traffic cams, including a nasty one that battered Matlacha. Never seen so many funnels around here.

We are fortunate to live in the geographical center of Cape Coral and, so far, have never been subject to storm surge. I once envied people their mega mansions on the river or saltwater canals. No longer. Thank the Lord He never bowed to my covetous nature and desire to have it all: big house, pool, cabin cruiser, sports car, bells, whistles, toys. It's just stuff likely to end up piled up and moldering on the sidewalk.

[SeanK]

Best Summary I've watched:

 

 

[SeanK]

Tampa station says ETA 23:00 @ Manasota Key

[Merlyn]

The latest "wobble" moved northward a bit in the last hour.  They still think Sarasota-Bradenton area for landfall, but personally I think it'll land around 8PM.  Whether it goes straight into Tampa Bay or veers towards Sarasota is pure guesswork:

[Looking Glass]

10 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

The latest "wobble" moved northward a bit in the last hour.  They still think Sarasota-Bradenton area for landfall, but personally I think it'll land around 8PM.  Whether it goes straight into Tampa Bay or veers towards Sarasota is pure guesswork:

I was looking at the radar and thought the same thing.  It’s already north of Cape Coral and Manasota Key.   I guess they are expecting a sudden push east, but man, just eyeballing it, Tampa Bay and just south certainly looks possible still.  

At least it’s losing a little steam. 

[Merlyn]

55 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

I was looking at the radar and thought the same thing.  It’s already north of Cape Coral and Manasota Key.   I guess they are expecting a sudden push east, but man, just eyeballing it, Tampa Bay and just south certainly looks possible still.  

At least it’s losing a little steam. 

Yeah the eye is opening up in the last hour, and the latest wobble is back almost straight East.  Just a little difference in the position of that cold front would make a huge difference in the path and strength!

[Barry]

We had a tornado about 5-6 blocks away, couple of hours ago. Got real dicey, but it has settled down now, just wind, not much rain. Got 2.21” of rain in that 1st band with tornadoes. Looks like Tampa before midnight, unless it goes north of Tampa?

[Barry]

Surge is going to be the worst of it, coming in now. Just depends on how much. Be safe everyone.

[kinzyjr]

5 hours ago, SeanK said:

When all seems hopeless, be thankful you don't live in Tornado Alley where the warnings are only 15 minutes prior to landfall.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, wore the t-shirt out. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The wind is really starting to pick up here.  Closing in on 5 inches of rain thus far. 

[D. Morrowii]

Man well that was crazy! We got several inches of rain and the water came up to the front door. The yard had 6” of water sitting in it for a while. During that a few tornado warnings and my neighbor texted and said his friend in Cocoa Beach had his roof ripped off.  We were watching the news and they’re showing rotation detected on the doppler radar and it was headed toward our neighborhood. This was all feeder band related and it’s almost calm now. Now we wait for the rest of the storm and wind. 

[Merlyn]

@D. Morrowii yeah I saw the tornado warnings all up the coast earlier.  So far here it's been steady rain and a few big gusts, but nothing dramatic...yet! 

It looks like the eye will land on Siesta/Lido Key in about an hour.  It was headed for Venice Beach before that wobble.  It may be fortunate that the North side is getting all the rain and the South side is getting most of the wind.  It's down to 105mph winds before landfall, which is really nice!

[James B]

Stay safe everyone in Fl!

[D. Morrowii]

I don’t want to wish my rain on anyone else but I don’t think we could shed another round of rain like we just had. We’ve had a little under 10” of rain since Friday which doesn't seem like that much for Florida but we are soggy and the street is still flooded. I can only wish the best for all affected especially the west coast people. 

[flplantguy]

My well shed fell over and took the pressure tank with it so water is out, no idea if its trying to pump water up or not i cant see it that well.  Power still on as i type this, there is a sting jet forming just inland from here all through pasco county and tampa, so all the people along I4 will deal with some nasty winds. The front and extra tropical transition are going to lead to some surprises overnight inland from wind. The rainfall amounts are also as high as expected, almost 8 inches here so far.  I would be fine without the extra rainfall from the tropical systems, i will never ask for one. This one also spawned the worse tornado outbreak in history (Florida history, second to the 2011 superoutbreak since tornadoes over water dont count) and they were as bad as you would see in tornado alley. This storm has everything but a blizzard, it even had hail early on.  Im ready for fall and done with tropical weather, i hope its done with us.

[Jimbean]

Right now the center of circulation is close to Winter Haven, and I'm getting sustained winds around 15 mph and gusts close to 40 mph.  

[metalfan]

Gainesville fared much better than we did in Helene. It was more like Debby. They said our max recorded wind gusts were in the 40's. There are some trees down, and some without power in the outlying areas. But the rain is stopping now. The news yesterday said every hotel room in Gainesville was taken. People evacuating up from Central FL. People were arriving and being told to either keep going North, of directed to a shelter. Friends in Sarasota and Tampa are reporting a lot of damage.

[SeanK]

Local ATL news says Florida folks are staying way up here.

[kinzyjr]

Thankful that the power came back on early this morning after going out ~8:30PM last night.  There are lots of tree branches down and a few damaged plants, but overall, it could have been a whole lot worse.  There were reports of people having windows blowing in and photos of terrible things happening during all of the tornadoes. 

[flplantguy]

I can fix my well myself, no home damage, and the plants look fine. I feel lucky, i never even lost power and after that event im surprised.  I hope we get more "better than expected" stories coming out, those tornado images were scary. I saw this one on another website from near loxahatchie:

 

[Barry]

Everything good here, never lost power, amazed! Yard was 10% of what Ian caused.  My largest plumeria rolled over, but I will stand it back up. I trimmed it to make it easier to stand up. Have lots of cuttings from it, Kimo. By far the tornadoes were the worst in my area. Coastal areas got surge and flooded homes.
 

 

[Merlyn]

No significant damage here either, we lost power from about 10:30 last night and it came back on around 6PM.  Hopefully it stays on!  My Alfredii were fine with the wind after my "hurricane cut" and only moderate winds.  I had one big branch of Ficus Auriculata fall over on some other stuff, but only did minor damage.  One trunk of Caryota Mitis fell and just missed three big cycads.  And my transplanted Jubaea x Butia fell over and had to be replanted and staked.  And a cactus fell over in my agave bed.  I'm glad I did some pre-hurricane cuts.  Obviously there's no way to know how much it helped.

My neighbors got ridiculously lucky again.  About 5 or 6 years ago one of their 80' tall water oaks fell.  I watched it from my dining room sway back and forth.  When it snapped it was falling directly towards their house when it got hit by a HUGE gust of wind...and redirected it onto the road.  This one was about as big and also fell directly away from their house and into the road:

[Merlyn]

The big neighborhood damage is all FDOT and Central Florida Expressway Authority's fault...100%.  This neighborhood has been here for 40 years and only had minor flooding problems when they neglected to clean out the pond's drain next door.  Then they built 429 and made a "dry pond" that turned out to never be dry and always has 2-3 feet of water in it.  And they have no drainage from that pond anywhere...except into our neighborhood.  The ponds they built down the street at the same time are totally fine, because they put in drains to the St. Johns River.  They are $%$#*) morons.  It may take the three affected neighborhoods to band together and file an actual lawsuit to force them to fix it. 

The house to the left of camera (not really visible) and the one to the left at the corner had water only about 1 inch from flooding the whole house.  The one to the right (circled but not visible either) is totally flooded.  The "civil engineers" who designed that highway ought to have their Professional Engineer licenses revoked.

[kinzyjr]

15 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

The "civil engineers" who designed that highway ought to have their Professional Engineer licenses revoked.

Definitely.  That was as easy to see coming as last call at the bar.