One always remembers how they spent their last hurricane. Mine was Hurricane Wilma that I experienced from a tent camping in the palmettos in Stuart Florida. It was a storm to remember.
Wilma was the last major hurricane to hit the gulf coast apparently. I had bought a used sailboat at Stuart and journeyed there to fix it up. I camped in the palmettos being on a budget, in a $20 tent. It goes without saying that riding my bicycle out of the impact area of the storm was not practical.
The storm winds built up gradually for a few days before it arrived. That tended to increase subjective stress, and after the storm passed it only gradually decreased.
The storm itself was not so much. wind might have gusted to 160 yet 140 was the high sustained average. The palmettos filtered out much of the wind, and though the tent was knocked down and hit hard with dead palmetto branches there was no injury. That strong eye-wall wind experience lasted just a few minutes then calm arrived in the eye of the storm.
I rode my bicycle around while the eye brought calm looking at the damage. It was mostly near rootless palm tree blown down into the street and power line or street light damage. Telephone poles slumped over in the sandy soil.
It was perhaps the most dry hurricane that could have been. Though Harvey has more rain hitting Texas I hope their experience is as enjoyable as was mine.
Wilma was the last major hurricane to hit the gulf coast apparently. I had bought a used sailboat at Stuart and journeyed there to fix it up. I camped in the palmettos being on a budget, in a $20 tent. It goes without saying that riding my bicycle out of the impact area of the storm was not practical.
The storm winds built up gradually for a few days before it arrived. That tended to increase subjective stress, and after the storm passed it only gradually decreased.
The storm itself was not so much. wind might have gusted to 160 yet 140 was the high sustained average. The palmettos filtered out much of the wind, and though the tent was knocked down and hit hard with dead palmetto branches there was no injury. That strong eye-wall wind experience lasted just a few minutes then calm arrived in the eye of the storm.
I rode my bicycle around while the eye brought calm looking at the damage. It was mostly near rootless palm tree blown down into the street and power line or street light damage. Telephone poles slumped over in the sandy soil.
It was perhaps the most dry hurricane that could have been. Though Harvey has more rain hitting Texas I hope their experience is as enjoyable as was mine.
