Co-worker posted this from Fort Myers.

Don't know if this will post - haven't had a way to communicate. No power, no water, very little to no comms - WE ARE SAFE

My cousin owns a single story, on grade, house one block from the beach in Punta Gorda. It is still standing without a scratch as of this morning. Hard to believe it wasn't swept away, or at least inundated.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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My cousin owns a single story, on grade, house one block from the beach in Punta Gorda. It is still standing without a scratch as of this morning. Hard to believe it wasn't swept away, or at least inundated.

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That seems impossible. Are they religious? How are neighboring homes?

No extra connection to the Almighty that I am aware. I have no idea about the surrounding area. They are a block southeast Hurricane Charley's for reference.

That almost sounds like a de-facto pledge to cutting a lot of legal slack to residents fending off looters.

Bag said:

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Irish 2.0 said:

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Bag said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Irish 2.0 said:

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#BREAKING: "We have fatalities in the hundreds," Sheriff Carmine Marceno of Lee County, Florida told 'Good Morning America' during an interview as now-Tropical Storm #Ian continues its path through the state. @livenowfox

— Josh Breslow (@JoshBreslowTV) September 29, 2022

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Did he offer any proof, or is he just speculating?

Saw the same thing during Katrina where there were reports, including by officials, of "hundreds of bodies in trees" in Mississippi, all of which turned out to be false.

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100% This is really dangerous to just be speculating and fear-mongering.

Give us exact numbers, at least of the current known status, or STFU and get back to work

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Maybe he does have some preliminary #s based off of 911 calls made. The Sheriff isn't trying to torch DeSantis with hyperbole. He's a (R).

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then hand them over, if not, its pure speculation and that is dangerous and irresponsible.

I remember the same thing was said about bolivar during ike "1000 missing!!" turned out to be complete BS

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Yeah....I am not sure I understand why any deaths would be desantis' fault.

It's not like he is super man and could fly around during the hurricane rescuing people.

They recommended people evacuate. If u did u were safe. If not, then that's on you.

Now cleanup afterwards is on him.

Number of deaths in Lee County appear to be about a dozen as of now - news reports are kinda all over.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Definitely a bad one. Looks like it didn't have the storm surge of Ike or Katrina or the titanic rain dump of Harvey, but Florida is flat and water takes a long time to move out of the interior, so the flooding from rain will be pretty bad in addition to the storm surge damage.

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This URL will be censored so you'll have to type it in but the video suggests that the storm surge was every bit as bad as Ike or Katrina at the places near landfall.

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasf u
c k/comments/xrmtvw/hurricane_ian_what_15_fr_storm_surge_looks_like/?

I live on the north side of Orlando. I got 19" of rain from the storm and no flooding in the house but it was a matter of inches. My neighbors across the street had significant flooding and a cracked slab from erosion caused by the flow of water around the foundation. On the Atlantic coast northeast of where I am, New Smyrna Beach recorded 28.6 inches of rain before the official gauge overflowed.

Across the street from the UCF campus there were student apartments in low lying areas and the water on the first floor was shoulder deep and they were evacuated by Guardsmen in airboats. There are going to be a lot of displaced students because many apartments are uninhabitable at least on the ground floor.

My electricity did not go down until 5:30 AM on Thursday as the storm was already moving to the east of us. Electricity was off for 26 hours. Streets were flooded in my area and lots of cars that tried to ford the water were stuck there. The winds were not bad in comparison to some previous storms. I would guess that the strongest gusts here were in the range of 70-75mph but perhaps less. I was very fortunate and the storm was just an inconvenience for me but for many people that are in very close proximity the flooding has been a real disaster.

18-20 feet? Measured?

Maybe people have forgotten a little about how bad those two storms truly were regarding magnitude and coverage of the surge.

This storm had some exceptional flooding to be sure, and a big surge, but it wasn't overtopping homes already built on piles or pushing shrimp boats 5 miles inland.
That's not to say it wasn't very devastating in its own right, or that Florida isn't having major problems due to its own unique geography

You are correct. This storm surge was not that high.

MouthBQ98 said:

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18-20 feet? Measured?

Maybe people have forgotten a little about how bad those two storms truly were regarding magnitude and coverage of the surge.

This storm had some exceptional flooding to be sure, and a big surge, but it wasn't overtopping homes already built on piles or pushing shrimp boats 5 miles inland.
That's not to say it wasn't very devastating in its own right, or that Florida isn't having major problems due to its own unique geography

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The pics friends sent me, I can say that Orlando and Central Florida has never flooded like that. Down town Orlando had a few feet of flooding on some streets.

A friend of mine send me a pick from his second floor deck in Orlando, it was just 2-3 feet above the water, meaning his entire first floor was in 4-6ft of water.

Even Frozen Gold was flooded, and that's on the East coast in New Smyrna beach. It's not quite as severe as Harvey was for Houston, but the flooding is severe and widespread across central Florida on a scale that Florida hasn't ever seen before.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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My cousin owns a single story, on grade, house one block from the beach in Punta Gorda. It is still standing without a scratch as of this morning. Hard to believe it wasn't swept away, or at least inundated.

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My brain keeps seeing the porch as floating in air a few inches above the sidewalk. I guess it is interpreting the shade as being from the porch rather than the roof.

So my first thought upon seeing the picture was that the rain had washed the dirt out from under the porch.

Curious what the fatality updates have been. Last I heard was a Sheriff dept. saying 'hundreds'. ?

TX_COWDOC said:

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Curious what the fatality updates have been. Last I heard was a Sheriff dept. saying 'hundreds'. ?

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Highest I've seen is 73 in Florida and 4 in North Carolina. Other media reports have a lower number.

Not sure if they're counting the 27 Cubans who's boat capsized off the Florida Keys. A few were rescued, but most are missing and presumed dead.

Now I can't unsee that