same her. we have 2 guys on standby in Pensacola waiting for the storm to pass. but my gut felling is they wont be able to get very far once it passes.
Standing by in Panama City for Hurricane Opal
- Thread starter rgano
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
same her. we have 2 guys on standby in Pensacola waiting for the storm to pass. but my gut felling is they wont be able to get very far once it passes.
Sailor of Fortune
Guru
Thoughts and prayers for all affected by this storm.
McGillicuddy
Guru
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2015
- Messages
- 754
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Scot Free
- Vessel Make
- Cheoy Lee 53' Efficient
It looks worse than I expected. God bless and protect my friends in the Panhandle.
Oh and btw, can a mod change the title of this thread from Hurricane Opal to Micheal?
Oh and btw, can a mod change the title of this thread from Hurricane Opal to Micheal?
As I wake up this morning and read the news, the damage is very significant! Looks like some marinas in Panama city really took a hit. Hope we can all get thru this one with no one hurt, but sure looks like some damage.
I've got a dear friend in Panama City with his boat at one of the marinas, as well as a number of friends on this forum and having heard much yet.
Hope the best for all in that area and hope things can get back to normal soon. The best to all in that area, and it seems pretty wide... perhaps major damage from Cedar Key way over to Destin?
I've got a dear friend in Panama City with his boat at one of the marinas, as well as a number of friends on this forum and having heard much yet.
Hope the best for all in that area and hope things can get back to normal soon. The best to all in that area, and it seems pretty wide... perhaps major damage from Cedar Key way over to Destin?
Just devastating, whether land or sea, in the prime area in which it hit. You see the photos from Mexico Beach and all you can do is cry for the people impacted. We're talking 155 mph winds with tremendous surge. The nearest we've seen is Maria hitting Puerto Rico. We did have a small area similar in the keys after Irma. It's a bit like the surge of Katrina combined with the force of Andrew. This wasn't a 100 year storm. It was a never before storm. Or perhaps it's a new 100 year storm. The rise from CAT 2 to CAT 4 shows clearly the effect of 4 to 6 degrees warmer water. I'm very much afraid Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence and Michael are our new normal.
I hope lives lost are very limited. Clearly we have no idea yet of those who may be lost. I hope we do hear from those on TF who were in the area soon. It's just a very sad time. The additional flooding in the Carolinas seems almost anti-climatic when thinking of Michael. However, to those still recovering from Florence, it's one more hit that is very hard to deal with. It's like being down on the ground and ready to get up and another person comes by and kicks you in the head.
Most important are lives lost. However, a lot of people have lost everything. I have seen it several times up close, but still can't imagine what it's like to have to completely start over. I've always felt in watching those having to do so that try as I might I had no idea how they felt.
I hope lives lost are very limited. Clearly we have no idea yet of those who may be lost. I hope we do hear from those on TF who were in the area soon. It's just a very sad time. The additional flooding in the Carolinas seems almost anti-climatic when thinking of Michael. However, to those still recovering from Florence, it's one more hit that is very hard to deal with. It's like being down on the ground and ready to get up and another person comes by and kicks you in the head.
Most important are lives lost. However, a lot of people have lost everything. I have seen it several times up close, but still can't imagine what it's like to have to completely start over. I've always felt in watching those having to do so that try as I might I had no idea how they felt.
Finally heard through the grapevine that everybody is okay and the message was “minor damage”. We shall see, but at least everybody is uninjured. No texts have been returned since the storm, it seems that pretty much all wireless communications are still down.
The Mexico Beach video is astounding. Must have had a twister on top of it. My Aunts house is within walking/golf cart distance of PCB, so they were at serious risk. As I feared, everybody stayed. Other Uncles house was not right on the beach, but nestled low among canals and such that storm surge is the big risk of course. This thing came so quick, and the last time they were hit, the worst damage were the ones who left and were not around to quickly respond to prevent flooding. It conditioned a lot of people to the wrong behavior for a cat 4 storm. There is going to be some explaining due when this is all over.
Lack of communication from others in the area at this point is normal and should not be construed as necessarily a bad sign.
The Mexico Beach video is astounding. Must have had a twister on top of it. My Aunts house is within walking/golf cart distance of PCB, so they were at serious risk. As I feared, everybody stayed. Other Uncles house was not right on the beach, but nestled low among canals and such that storm surge is the big risk of course. This thing came so quick, and the last time they were hit, the worst damage were the ones who left and were not around to quickly respond to prevent flooding. It conditioned a lot of people to the wrong behavior for a cat 4 storm. There is going to be some explaining due when this is all over.
Lack of communication from others in the area at this point is normal and should not be construed as necessarily a bad sign.
caltexflanc
Guru
A hurricane is called a tropical cyclone for a reason. It's one huge twister combined with a wall of water.
Good to hear. I was in Lynn Haven Monday. Pictures don't even begin to show the level of damage.
We get an idea from photos and videos and if we've been there before we have a pretty good idea, but until you stand in the middle of it with those whose homes they are, you don't really see it.
Rockport was my first to go to post hurricane. One picture that will always stick with me and it definitely wasn't the worst, but two young girls with us saw it first. There was a 17 year old girl standing in a pile of wood and debris that had been her home, picking up and throwing boards and cursing at the top of her lungs with each one. I think in some ways she was expressing what others were suppressing. So many show sadness, but it's just a cover for anger. Juanita had lost her mom in the Dallas area two to three years earlier, moved to Rockport with her father who was in oil and she rarely saw, and then taken care of him through a long illness and lost him about 6 weeks before Harvey struck. Her entire world had crumbled. She was alone and left with a pile of debris.
There are so many left like that, some alone, some with families. It's not the physical damage that is so tragic but the human toll. You go there and you see it and you feel so helpless. You might help just a little but you can't make things right again. Some are partially covered by insurance and some get FEMA aid and some are completely devastated.
You try to remain strong while around them but when you get alone at night, you cry for them. I'm sure other natural disasters like the west coast fires are much the same.
Juanita is fine today by the way. We brought her home with us and she moved in with friends of ours in Jupiter, finished high school there and has shocked even herself, not a college freshman. We're so proud of her and happy for her, but we also realize that she was just one person and a fortunate one.
Hundreds of thousands will suffer from PTSD and the vast majority of them will get no treatment for it. Most may work their way through it alone or with family, Some never recover and are haunted by it the rest of their lives, especially young children.
I have no answers and still can't fully appreciate it, having not suffered such losses personally. I don't know how it feels to be terrified you're about to die or to lose everything you have, and those who lose most are those who have the least.
Heard from my Uncle via text today finally. House was untouched, but lost the pool enclosure. They have water and electricity, but Verizon still out. He had a boat at Pirate Cove, very likely lost as the buildings were decimated. I think they were very fortunate overall. Aunt across town also came through with no damage to the house. Again, very fortunate. I’ll be interested in hearing whether the sphincter swelling was more significant than the wind speed when we get to finally speak.
Glad to hear things are working out for her. I spent 2 months working in Houston area after Harvey. It was heart breaking to see house after house with all there belongings piled up curbside. It was hard to fathom the amount of water it took to flood the amount of area it did. We had stuff are far south as Galveston and north of humble. And east to the la border.
Harvey was interesting in that there were two very different situations, the Houston area hit by floods and the coastal area hit by winds. Houston area largely uninsured. Coastal area mostly insured and uniquely through Texas Windstorm Insurance Association which set up quickly to handle claims.
You mention belongings piled up curbside. One of the saddest circumstances was to see those who had lost parents, or even worse children, to death previously and all photos of them were destroyed.
Then there are issues like schools and many who missed months. Puerto Rican kids missing up to a year of school. Mexico Beach to be determined. Poor areas with not the greatest educational systems to start with and the kids put further behind their peers elsewhere. Even with Juanita, we dealt with needing a transcript from a school that wasn't open.
MrJim
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2015
- Messages
- 206
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Irish Miss
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 30 Pilot Rum Runner Classic
My boat is at St. Andrews marina, which has floating docks. That marina - and a lot of the boats there - incurred significant damage. But almost all of the boats there are still floating. The damage was not nearly as bad as the two other marinas in the immediate vicinity (Panama City downtown, and Sun Harbor), which have fixed docks. I wrote my boat off as a goner when we left town before the storm hit and was amazed that it survived relatively undamaged. But I did have some hope that the floating docks would hold up.
OldDan1943
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2017
- Messages
- 10,595
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Kinja
- Vessel Make
- American Tug 34 #116 2008
I am glad your boat 'survived relatively undamaged'.
I am in Aventura and 3 or 4 of the fixed docks were damaged to the point that the concrete docks needed repair and they still are in need of repair. It takes forever to get contract finalized. To add a bit of humor, if we are lucky, the repairs will be completed before the next hurricane season starts.
They destruction is the result of boats not being tied correctly. I say this because boats on one side of the dock were undamaged and the boat on the opposite side were tied loosely allowing them to repeatedly hit the concrete dock, finger pier.
I am in Aventura and 3 or 4 of the fixed docks were damaged to the point that the concrete docks needed repair and they still are in need of repair. It takes forever to get contract finalized. To add a bit of humor, if we are lucky, the repairs will be completed before the next hurricane season starts.
They destruction is the result of boats not being tied correctly. I say this because boats on one side of the dock were undamaged and the boat on the opposite side were tied loosely allowing them to repeatedly hit the concrete dock, finger pier.
OP
OP
rgano
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,995
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- FROLIC
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 30 Pilot II since 2015. GB-42 1986-2015. Former Unlimited Tonnage Master
I can't believe I said OPAL. I was here for that one too. Oh well. I lived through both.
Hose dry, boat afloat was my standard reply where I was able to get any connections in the days immediately after this monster.
Hose dry, boat afloat was my standard reply where I was able to get any connections in the days immediately after this monster.
OP
OP
rgano
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,995
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- FROLIC
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 30 Pilot II since 2015. GB-42 1986-2015. Former Unlimited Tonnage Master
Was running 4500- and 6500-Watt units, 12 hourson and 12 off until last night when we got power back. Got water two days before that. 12 days without a hot shower. Yuck. Boat still stuck behind fallen trees. Plan is to tow it to clear water, dive the prop and take her home to the one clear wet slip I have left.
FoxtrotCharlie
Guru
We looked at a several South Louisiana boats while boat searching and saw a couple that had much higher hours on the gennie than on the mains - realized that the PO's used the gen after several hurricanes in the past - makes perfect sense!
Gensets generally have higher hours than mains... people run them at night when sleeping... when at anchor... etc
