Sanibel damage reports surprising

[Aimless]

Tv and newspaper reports today seem to indicate the damage at Sanibel was much less than expected. Thank goodness, I had always loved that area. Any thoughts on why they were spared. I would have expected much more damage from a surge. They were on the south side of the storm at landfall, so maybe that had something to do with it??? What are your thoughts....

[Derek Ortt]

The eye wall jogged just north of them. It made a last minute due north wobble, bringing the eye wall over only the extreme western protions of that island

[furluvcats]

Alot of prayer?

[Dave C]

When you look at the radar loop someone provided here a few days ago of landfall that jog was definately the saving grace for Fort Myers. It was dead on track for them until that last hr or so then came the wobble to the N. that sent it up Punta Gordas direction. It must have seen Jim Cantore and jumped north!!

[BL03]

[WXBUFFJIM]

The eye was 20 miles northwest of Sanibel and impacted the Captiva Island instead. The southeastern eyewall just knicked the northwest portion of Sanibel. Captiva points north and east to the Port Charlotte Harbor area were the highest impact zones. Only a small area within the eyewall saw the strongest winds and luckily most of Sanibel except the extreme northwest portion of that island wasn't in that core of strongest winds, hence much less damage. This was a small sized hurricane anyway, which was a good thing overall. Imagine if this was a larger sized system, you get the idea. But the devastation is still amazing in the Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte area. Also noticing the footage and Captiva was much harder hit compared to Sanibel and it all had to do with the position of the eyewall. Captiva got the eyewall and got the strongest winds for a long period of time. It wasn't surprising to see a 400 foot wide cut of the barrier island in this type of storm.

Jim

[Stephanie]

Thanks BL03 for the graphic.

Hopefully that's the closest a Cat 4 gets to that region ever!

[Josephine96]

Category 4's are serious business.. Any hurricane is serious business.. Just ask me and anyone else who has to clean up wind damage from the storm..

{Is still praying for my lights to return}

[Aimless]

Thanks WXBUFFJIM & BLO3 for the explainations and graphics. I had thought 20 miles away wouldn't have been far enough to be spared ( not that there wasn't alot of damage).

[furluvcats]

Tonya from Independence, MO writes:
My comment below is regarding the Bubble Room. NBC-2 has a story on that.

(Comment 174 of 200. Posted at 05:08 PM EDT, 08/18/2004)
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Tonya from Independence, MO writes:
NBC-2.com has a story on this. It sustained damage but was not completely destroyed. Needs a lot of work though.

(Comment 173 of 200. Posted at 05:06 PM EDT, 08/18/2004)
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Theres the info I found on "THE BUBBLE ROOM", in which I keep inquiring about...

[vbhoutex]

Thanks WXBUFFJIM & BLO3 for the explainations and graphics. I had thought 20 miles away wouldn't have been far enough to be spared ( not that there wasn't alot of damage).

Another good example of this more concentrated damage is when Andrew came into Dade county only(someone correct me here)20 miles South of downtown Miami and the damage in Homestead, as we all know was unimaginable and downtown Miami sustained minimal damage compared to only 20 miles away where everything was obliterated. It is very strange what a few miles difference can make when one is looking at a tight compact storm as opposed to one like Hugo or Floyd(in size).

[ColdFront77]

David, Homestead is 25 to 30 miles southwest of Miami.

[BL03]

Here are some more!

Radar

Radar

Radar shot

Infrared Img

Water Vapor

Visible img

Sat and Radar of Charley


Just because the eye was small doesn't mean it was a small Hurricane because photos show it wasn't!

[Derek Ortt]

charley was a very small near cat 5, but if you want to see a really small cat 5, look at this image of tracy

http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/Met/24am.html
http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/Met/25am.html


damage form this to darwin was about 5 times worse than charley's

[HurricaneBill]

charley was a very small near cat 5, but if you want to see a really small cat 5, look at this image of tracy

http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/Met/24am.html
http://www.ntlib.nt.gov.au/tracy/advanced/Met/25am.html


damage form this to darwin was about 5 times worse than charley's

Was Cyclone Tracy a Category 5? I thought I read somewhere it was, but I wasn't sure. I read in some book, the barometric pressure was 27.00 inches at landfall. Is this true?