OMG, winds of 155 mph and gusts recored of 172. This video gets right at the facts.

 

Ive seen those storm surge videos before. Scary stuff. Water often kills more people than the wind.

 

Blizzard of 78 had storm surge of 15 feet in a BLIZZARD at low tide with 25 foot waves on top.


yeah this one popped up from almost nowhere.

 

While the storm surge from Michael is considerably less than Katrina, the winds are much worse. So the damage along the shore won't be quite as catastrophic but severe damage will extend far further inland. Katrina was a low cat 3 or high cat 2 when it came ashore. This one sounds like a high cat 4. The difference is night and day as far as wind damage goes.

If there is good news it is this: I have been impressed by how well recent construction has held up in the aftermath coverage I've seen. If you have a house that is up to current building codes with a good roof that is less than 20 years old and you are not threatened by storm surge or rising water or falling trees, your house can withstand an amazing amount of punishment from Mother Nature. Building codes have been heavily modified over the last couple of decades as a result of lessons learned from previous storms going back to Andrew in 1992.

 

Hey, Dave, thanks for the video. I just figured out why I dreamed of being on a coast during flooding. It was scary when I was holding on to something not to be swept away. After the fact I saw a pier that was standing but had no way to get on to it. Subconscious mind at work. This is why I've never watched scary or violent movies.

 

Just now able to get some views of Mexico Beach. Very bad...

 

CNN's aerial footage of Mexico Beach showed about one standing house per 10 or 20 lots. I guess those are the houses Mike was talking about above. Not too many of them.

 

It looks absolutely awful. I think I'll stay put where I live. Though it may not happen often, those hurricanes are scary, and the south deals with evacuation orders often. I would not want to be a part of that. We do get hurricanes, but they are rare, we get blizzards, not fun, and they can be scary, but a strong hurricane or tornado would scare me more.

I feel for those who lost everything.

 

 

Not just civilian damage, but Tyndall AFB took a direct hit as you can see in this video.
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/tynd...amage-1.551072