Memories and lessons remain as Florida’s treacherous hurricane season comes to an end
Work to repair damage from the black, gasoline-tainted flood waters that flowed almost hip-high into her
The hurricane was the first she experienced, watching the flood invade her home from a second-floor window.
"The water came up about a foot and a half inside, so there was no difference between the river and front door. It came about this high, and there's three steps to the front door," Aquilla said as she raised a hand about 5 feet off the ground.
The hurricane season officially ended Thursday. Irma was the monster in the middle -- a Category 5 storm at one point that lived for 13 days and ultimately flooded much of
"For us, it is the worst hurricane season ever," said
Contractors have stripped the restaurant to the beams as they fix damage caused by almost 2 feet of river water when Irma struck.
"This building never flooded and it certainly never flooded in the years we had it," Zarka said. "We sandbagged. We did what we thought was prudent and tried to be prepared. I don't know if any level of sandbagging would have helped. It came through the window frames."
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FEARS PREDICTED
The severity of this year's hurricane season was predicted early by the
For comparison, the 2012 season also had 19 storms, two that crossed through or just south of
The last time the area had that close a brush with hurricanes and tropical storms was 2004 when four of that seasons's 16 hurricanes socked
Of course, while the prediction was for a severe 2017 season, no one could say where those storms would go, said
"There have been other seasons when we have been above average and they stayed out to sea," Sandrick said. "Two things we did not realize was the impacts to land would be because there is no forecast for landfall on a seasonal basis and no one ever saw the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes. We saw that before in 1993. But no one knew for sure there would be that many major hurricanes in the basin."
"With Irma we started having briefings almost two weeks before it approached our coast," Woodard said, with the city eventually deciding to order evacuations. "This was the greatest, most significant flooding since 1846, but we prepare year-round for storms and other incidents."
Unfortunately, people tend to only look at the severity of storms within their lifespans, forgetting epic hurricane hits like Dora in
"From an historical point of view as far as the inundation that occurred on the
SLIDESHOWS
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DAMAGES AND AID
The damages caused by Irma are still being felt two months later in areas such as San Marco, where some storefronts and homes remain boarded up even as Christmas decorations hang from nearby streetlights and fences. Many homes have temporary storage pods in their driveways.
Uprooted trunks and roots of fallen trees are still in abundance. And along the riverfront seawall on
"I know a lot of people suffered damages they are still dealing with, but it could have been worse," Woodard said. "... People need to heed the advice and orders especially when we have warnings. I think they did heed that. But flooding to the extent we saw it is a rare occurrence."
By the numbers, Irma impacted 65,755 square miles of
The
The total estimated insured losses amounted to almost
Most affected regionally were those who lived and worked along the
"Further down the
Irma racked up another statistic on the state's waterways, according to the
As for next year's season and the ones after that, Woodard suggested residents remember this year.
"We always remind people it only takes one hurricane," he said. "You need to prepare year round, and seven months from now we will be reminding people again."
And it could happen again, Sandrick said.
"Certainly this type of season is possible again, and it is just the cycle of hurricanes," he said. "If we go back in history, we can point to epic seasons in the past. This occurs and is just part of the cycle. There will be another 2017 season again at some point. It may be 20 or 30 years. You need to treat every season the same. It doesn't matter if we forecast above or below. Treat that this may be the year we could get struck."
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