Hurricane Ian struck southwest Florida as a cat-4 hurricane on Sep 28, 2022. This podcast provides field work insights from before, during and after landfall.

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Transcript:

00;00;03;21 - 00;00;25;12
Hal Needham
In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian developed in the western Caribbean and threatened to track northeast and impact the west coast of Florida as a major hurricane. As he and intensified, I drove to the impact zone to get the lay of the land forecast, wind and flood conditions and document the impacts. This podcast is our first in a series of podcast about Hurricane Ian.

00;00;25;25 - 00;00;47;11
Hal Needham
It covers the early days of my fieldwork, including positioning for landfall, experiencing the incredible winds and making my first damage assessments. Hey, everyone, this is Dr. Hal, host of the GeoTrek podcast. GeoTrek loves to get out on the ground and document the impacts of extreme weather and natural disasters. So, of course, we were on the ground before, during and after the landfall of Hurricane Ian.

00;00;47;22 - 00;01;17;06
Hal Needham
You're going to love this podcast if you're interested in tropical weather and better understanding the impacts of powerful hurricanes on our coastal communities. If you're new to the podcast, go check travels the world to find stories about the relationship between people and nature. Our stories investigate the impact of extreme weather, disasters and hazards on individuals and communities. Our goal is to help you understand better how the world works so you can take actions to make yourself, your family and your community more resilient from all the extremes Mother Nature can throw at us.

00;01;18;03 - 00;01;36;18
Hal Needham
Hey, before we get into this episode, we have a favor to ask of you. We'd really appreciate if you'd take a moment to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your subscription helps us mark progress, which enables us to make more professional partnerships moving forward and ensures many more episodes of the Geo Trek podcast in the future.

00;01;37;11 - 00;02;05;09
Hal Needham
Hurricane Ian made landfall on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 28, 2022, on the island of Cayo Costa, near Fort Myers, Florida, as a Category four hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles an hour. I drove down the Florida Peninsula the day before landfall looking for the optimal place to document the storm the day before landfall. The eye was projected to come ashore around Siesta Key, near near Sarasota, Florida, just south of Tampa Bay.

00;02;06;06 - 00;02;29;08
Hal Needham
I rolled into Sarasota with a ten day supply of food and water, as well as ten gallons of gas. Anticipating that, I'd encounter a boarded up ghost town. You can imagine my surprise when I encountered a fully operational Sarasota with few buildings boarded up and most small businesses running as usual. This is my first indication that West Florida might be in trouble from this violent storm.

00;02;29;29 - 00;02;54;13
Hal Needham
I wanted to get south of landfall, so I drove to a town called Venice. My goal was to document the most extreme and wind, the most extreme wind and storm surge conditions I could find without losing my vehicle in floodwater. I expected storm surge as high as ten feet in the region. Based on the track and intensity models at the time, a local resident pushed back when I advised him to be prepared for 2 to 3 feet of water in his home that stood at seven and a half feet.

00;02;54;24 - 00;03;14;05
Hal Needham
He said he had lived here his whole life and he knew what to expect and really wasn't very receptive to discussing the storm forecast with me. I encountered another man who told me that hurricanes never make landfall near Venice because of ancient Indian burial grounds. This matches the perspective of a woman I encountered ten years before at nearby Siesta Key.

00;03;14;20 - 00;03;34;23
Hal Needham
She told me that hurricanes never hit there. They always strike north of there or south of there. After unsuccessful attempts to find a parking garage in Venice to elevate my car above the flood waters, I drove 40 minutes to the southeast to a town called Punta Gorda, where a downtown parking garage provided views over a small urban landscape.

00;03;35;13 - 00;03;58;10
Hal Needham
The 11:00 AM advisory from the National Hurricane Center that day before landfall increased the storm surge forecast to 8 to 12 feet for this region of the coast, including Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, off Charlotte Harbor with much of Punta Gorda between five and seven feet of elevation. This would probably mean I'd see at least several feet of storm surge washing across this landscape the next day.

00;03;59;07 - 00;04;20;06
Hal Needham
I successfully made it to the parking garage before access was cut off and then got the lay of the land, as in churn closer over warm golf water. I car camped in the garage on Tuesday night as the winds picked up and the first bands of Egan's rains moved in. In made landfall on Wednesday afternoon around 40 miles south of where it was forecast to make landfall the previous day.

00;04;20;22 - 00;04;45;28
Hal Needham
Ian's new track brought the eye right over us and in Punta Gorda with what were likely Cat two wins in the first half, around 75 minutes of relative calm. Then the strongest winds during the second eyewall hit on Wednesday evening. Our location observed cat four winds on the backside, but no storm surge. However, storm surge inflicted catastrophic damage in nearby Fort Myers Beach.

00;04;46;07 - 00;05;13;19
Hal Needham
Sanibel Island, the city of Fort Myers and Cape Coral. As eye as INS winds increased in Punta Gorda. I made two friends in the parking garage. John is a storm chaser from Oklahoma who has experienced a lot of experience chasing severe weather and tornadoes on the plains, but was documenting his first hurricane during the year. Jose Garcia is a meteorologist and tropical weather enthusiast who grew up in Puerto Rico but now lives in Maryland.

00;05;13;28 - 00;05;39;03
Hal Needham
He drove through the night and arrived without sleep to join us in the parking garage. He's been chasing hurricanes since 2004. I recorded interviews with these guys during the second half of Hurricane Ian Fury. This interview with John captures his thoughts on his first hurricane chase. I'm here back in the same parking garage in Punta Gorda, Florida. We're still getting hammered by strong winds from hurricane.

00;05;39;03 - 00;05;41;21
Hal Needham
And I'm with John. John, this is your first hurricane chaser.

00;05;41;28 - 00;05;48;02
John
It is. And it's been a blast thus far. It's a new experience, but I'm definitely enjoying it.

00;05;48;07 - 00;05;52;29
Hal Needham
So you have a big background in chasing severe weather like tornadoes and things like that on the plains, right?

00;05;53;02 - 00;06;14;07
John
Yes. So conventionally, I am a tornado chaser and I've been doing that for officially on YouTube for about a year. And I have gotten quite a few tornadoes. I was on the December 10th, many field events. And, you know, I started getting subs, kind of hinting, you know, I should try hurricanes. So I figured out entertaining.

00;06;14;16 - 00;06;17;03
Hal Needham
So how does a hurricane feel different to you than tornadoes?

00;06;17;22 - 00;06;46;24
John
So the main distinction to me is it's definitely more of a slow but constant, if that makes sense. Type of event where tornadoes are usually quicker to form and dissipate, obviously a lot quicker. The hurricane, it definitely felt slow, but very steady. Just a very lateral increase in intensity.

00;06;46;25 - 00;06;54;23
Hal Needham
That's right. It's ramping up for hours. And then how long have we been in hurricane force winds, though, here on the backside? It's been, I don't know, 2 hours plus or something.

00;06;55;05 - 00;07;04;08
John
Absolutely. Two, maybe even a little more, two and a half hours and intense gusts to I mean, these aren't little gusts. This is definitely the real deal.

00;07;04;25 - 00;07;15;14
Hal Needham
Yeah, that's a. So did you know that you were going to be doing hurricane chasing this year or was this like a last minute decision? Walk walk us through your decision to come here and how that played out, where you came from and all that good stuff?

00;07;16;10 - 00;07;41;15
John
Absolutely. So it was absolutely 110% a last minute decision, as I'm sure you're well aware, tornado season didn't perform to the expectations that US chasers have now. Obviously, that's a great thing for the, you know, people that live in Tornado Alley, but us as chasers, it's a little bit of a lackluster year. So, you know, people started letting me know, you know.

00;07;41;16 - 00;08;07;01
John
Mazo you know, you should maybe consider a hurricane. So I was like, well, you know, okay, I'll think about it. But obviously models started hinting towards the development of Ian, and before we knew it, it looked like it's gonna be a major hurricane. And so I kind of got shoved into the mix gently, but definitely with no regrets.

00;08;07;10 - 00;08;18;05
Hal Needham
How did you decide where to go? I mean, were you looking to get like right in the middle of the eye or were you looking to get maybe on one of the eyewall, as were you looking for more wind events? I experienced flooding. I mean, what were you looking for?

00;08;18;28 - 00;08;40;18
John
So I had two plans of actions. The first, if if what's is going to be a less than a major hurricane, so either a one or two or possibly a tropical storm, I would hope for the tornado threat and that that would be my concentration still, you know, feeling out what a tropical cyclone is about, you know, learned in the event it became a three, four or a five.

00;08;40;26 - 00;09;08;11
John
The plan was to somehow get into the, you know, the eyewall experience, then hopefully get into the eye. And just to keep it brief. Luckily for me, I have a good friend that lives, you know, right smack in a tropical center like a better terminology. And he's been advising me thus far, you know, what to look for, what a rapid intensification trend looks like and certain things that I needed to pay attention to.

00;09;08;11 - 00;09;14;08
John
So I definitely had some great support, you know, with my colleagues and friends.

00;09;14;18 - 00;09;21;11
Hal Needham
And you made a good choice. We were right here. We got some time in the eye, but we also got to experience to eyewall. So not bad for your first chase.

00;09;21;29 - 00;09;43;18
John
Oh, for my first chase. I definitely consider this a ten out of ten. And obviously, you know, you know, making friends with you and our other buddy Jose, it made it even more sweet. And you guys did bring a little bit of level of confidence for me. So that was awesome, too. So I definitely have to say this is going to be a new theme for my channel and I'm excited.

00;09;44;07 - 00;09;55;27
Hal Needham
Joe What did it feel like? And then the back eyewall there, it looked like we were getting sustained. Jose Things probably low in Category four winds. I mean, it was rip in there for a while, complete, wiped out. What was going through your mind when you're recording that?

00;09;56;22 - 00;10;16;00
John
So I'll just be blunt here. I was a little you know, with the first half, I was like, okay, But when we got into that second half, that was that was an eye opener. You know, that's when, you know, the fun and games starting up, you know, going into, okay, I got to be careful. I got to be mindful about this, you know, And I started.

00;10;16;00 - 00;10;17;27
Hal Needham
Seeing debris flying through the air and things like that.

00;10;17;27 - 00;10;35;21
John
Yeah, absolutely. We saw the debris and it definitely got intense there. I would like to highlight, though, it was a surprise to me. You know, I don't have a strong knowledge yet on hurricanes. So, you know, I always assumed the first half is going to be the worst. But the second half, it really surprised me.

00;10;36;06 - 00;10;46;19
Hal Needham
I've heard Chaser say before, sometimes the second half can be worse and people have stories of that. I, I haven't experienced that really until this one. The second half. I think the winds were really ripping there more so than the first half.

00;10;47;08 - 00;11;02;25
John
Oh, absolutely. I wish were able to measure the winds. It would be hard to approximate what the winds were, but it definitely felt like a category four. It definitely felt like what a major hurricane. What I believe that to me, it was definitely eye opening.

00;11;03;03 - 00;11;18;17
Hal Needham
Well, John, I'm glad you came down here. I hope to see you on future chases and best of luck both chasing hurricanes and tropical weather as to your focus, your focus there on the plains a lot, right? I think you live in Oklahoma now, so I imagine you'll be out there next spring chasing tornadoes, hail and severe weather as well.

00;11;19;09 - 00;11;34;28
John
Absolutely. I'm a convective guy, but I think tropical now is definitely going to be a thing. I'll be always in the plains. And I do live in Oklahoma. I'm a New Yorker, but I moved down to Norman, Oklahoma, right next to the Storm Prediction Center to do all of this.

00;11;35;03 - 00;11;51;06
Hal Needham
You're in a good spot for chasing tornadoes. Well, last question for you. Any advice for people that go tornado chasing that want to see big events on the plains? I mean, I know, I know big hail is a concern that people have any any advice on maybe young professionals or students that want to get out there and chase severe storms and tornadoes?

00;11;52;02 - 00;12;17;07
John
Absolutely. Probably the biggest advice I would have is definitely learn your radar product. Your radar products are going to be your eyes for the storm. As you know, tornadoes, we visualize them and we interpret them by what they show us. But, you know, that's the exception, not the standard. We use our radar products to give us glimpses, Let it be.

00;12;17;07 - 00;12;39;05
John
You know, we're in the middle of a hail corps or it's a nocturnal chase or a drain wrap. So the biggest advice I would like to emphasize on is definitely learn all the radar products. That'd be real activity velocity. Obviously I call this and coefficient. Those are going to be crucial to keeping you safe. And you know, that's probably very big for me.

00;12;39;24 - 00;12;44;17
Hal Needham
John, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Best of wishes on the rest of this hurricane and safe trip back home.

00;12;44;17 - 00;12;48;23
John
Thank you so much. Likewise with you. And I'm excited to do this again.

00;12;50;09 - 00;13;12;05
Hal Needham
Wow, John, thanks so much for sharing your insights with us. A few perspectives on some things that John shared their number one, I'm sure you can hear the excitement in his voice. He was really enjoying his first hurricane chase. I wanted to clarify that storm chasers like John get really excited about extreme weather, but in no way are they happy that people lost their lives or their homes during this catastrophic storm.

00;13;12;21 - 00;13;42;28
Hal Needham
This distinction must be stated because it may seem to be disconnected from the reactions of most people to storms. Most people think that their unfortunate negative experiences that they wish would just go away. However, storm chasers get really excited about these storms and love documenting them, whether they're hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards in the wintertime. Please understand that storm chasers are focused on experiencing and learning more about extreme weather, enjoying the display from Mother Nature while still feeling compassion and empathy for storm victims.

00;13;42;28 - 00;14;05;00
Hal Needham
For a weather enthusiast, riding out the eyewall of a major hurricane is an absolute thrill, and their documentation of storm events can help increase our collective knowledge of the science, which can lead to improved forecasting and warnings. Number two, John talked about the long duration of Hurricane Ian. Hurricanes are certainly longer duration events than tornadoes and severe weather that John was used to chasing on the plains.

00;14;05;10 - 00;14;33;02
Hal Needham
But Hurricane Ian was even a long event for a tropical system. We were in hurricane force winds for around seven or 8 hours, minus the 75 minutes in the eye. It was a really long duration event. John mentioned subs on his YouTube channel. These are subscribers who regularly follow his content and had some suggestions about future content and even suggested that he may be considered chasing a hurricane and that influenced his decision to come to hurricane in number four.

00;14;33;02 - 00;14;57;02
Hal Needham
I also conducted an interview with a guy named Jose Garcia. After I talked to John, we were all in the parking garage together. Jose has been chasing hurricanes since 2004, so I was curious to hear how he framed Hurricane Ian in a larger context of previous hurricanes. He has experienced. I'm here really in the midst of Hurricane Ian, a Category four hurricane that hit southwest Florida today.

00;14;57;09 - 00;15;03;00
Hal Needham
I'm in Punta Gorda, Florida, where I made a friend named Jose. Jose, you've been chasing storms for a long time. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

00;15;03;18 - 00;15;05;05
Jose
Thank you so much. So I appreciate.

00;15;05;05 - 00;15;11;05
Hal Needham
That. So, you know, we were just talking, comparing storms and you're going back to like George back in 98. So how long have you been at this?

00;15;11;26 - 00;15;29;28
Jose
Well, I started chasing proper in 2004 with legendary storm chaser Jim Leonard. It was like a friend and a mentor. And he'd he'd say, Hey, why don't you join me? And so I was living in Puerto Rico back then. And so I flew to Florida and chased two.

00;15;29;28 - 00;15;34;17
Hal Needham
Thousand four was a really busy year in Florida. You said you chased Jean and Frances on the East Coast.

00;15;34;17 - 00;15;40;04
Jose
Just Frances. Uh, Jean, I actually got hit directly at the home by Jean in Puerto Rico.

00;15;40;04 - 00;15;40;28
Hal Needham
That's right. It hit Puerto.

00;15;40;28 - 00;15;42;09
Jose
Rico, right? Yeah.

00;15;42;18 - 00;15;45;20
Hal Needham
What was it like doing your first chase? I mean, do you have memories from that?

00;15;46;04 - 00;15;58;05
Jose
Yeah, I was thrilled. And Frances was barely a category two, and we never got that high. Anyway, we got the category one conditions, so it was wonderful. We got in the eye. It was just a thrill.

00;15;58;27 - 00;16;02;02
Hal Needham
Growing up in Puerto Rico, you must have gone through some hurricanes as well. Yeah.

00;16;02;19 - 00;16;24;26
Jose
Yeah, yeah. My first storm actually was at four years old, Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Category four, actually. It hit Puerto Rico, the eastern tip of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands devastated the islands. And I got to in my area, we got the hurricane conditions and I have memories from the storm. Even at four years old, it's one of my first memories.

00;16;25;09 - 00;16;26;17
Hal Needham
So that kind of set the stage for you.

00;16;26;27 - 00;16;59;06
Jose
You're right. You're right. And that and then the 1995 hurricane season, which was the first active, the first big season of this active period of Atlantic hurricane seasons, began in 95 and the Caribbean got two major threats. Hurricane Louis, Hurricane Marilyn and Marilyn actually hit part of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands devastated St Thomas. And that year I started collecting like newspaper clips, tracking maps.

00;16;59;15 - 00;17;06;13
Jose
So that's when I really got that ten year old. That's when I really got into full time tracking of hurricanes.

00;17;06;16 - 00;17;08;11
Hal Needham
You were really like following the storms then?

00;17;08;16 - 00;17;12;22
Jose
Yes. Yes. From the 1995 onwards, it was all craziness.

00;17;12;23 - 00;17;19;25
Hal Needham
So today we were talking about really your most memorable storms and you keep coming back to Maria in 2017 and Puerto Rico.

00;17;20;11 - 00;17;42;02
Jose
Yes. Yes, Maria, almost a Category five. It was an apparent Category four when it hit. I actually got to chase a storm in my car, which is in a city in the east coast of Puerto Rico, which got hit directly by the strongest winds in the storm. And it was there are no words to really describe experiencing a storm like that.

00;17;42;12 - 00;17;44;13
Jose
Yes, it was insane.

00;17;44;13 - 00;17;48;19
Hal Needham
Sustained winds were near 150. And you were near the coast where that happened, right?

00;17;49;01 - 00;18;01;17
Jose
Yes. Yes. I was in a Healey area about four miles from the coast. But the first heels that look at the ocean. So we got we got a good hit and the eyewall came fresh from the coast.

00;18;02;07 - 00;18;05;11
Hal Needham
What was that like being in an upper level category four eyewall?

00;18;06;02 - 00;18;37;19
Jose
It was incredible. You know, the storm, the eyewall came during darkness four in the morning between four and five in the morning. So it was a lot of worrying for me for the logistics of the to remain safe and being able to film. And I went to a relative's house with a nice garage in that area, and I put the car with the headlights on so I could film the storm and the winds.

00;18;37;19 - 00;18;58;22
Jose
I estimated in the 140 to 150 mile an hour range, more likely around 150. And the peak and the wind gust were easily over at one 6175 possibly. It was just a very intense hit and the damage was consistent with an upper category four intensity hurricane.

00;18;59;11 - 00;19;19;17
Hal Needham
I've heard people say that often people will build stronger in the Caribbean because they get so many hits. But when you get to upper level Cat four, it's really hard to do anything to prepare for that. I mean, how did Puerto Rico really weather Maria? I know there were some big impacts, but what about what you saw in that area with the really strong upper cat four winds?

00;19;19;17 - 00;19;51;00
Jose
Usually if you build concrete, the houses are able to withstand those extreme conditions. There may be damage to windows and doors or from debris flying. But some houses there were I saw a picture of a house that was poorly, clearly poorly built, a concrete house that the concrete ceiling was partly ripped by the hurricane. But to be fair, the house was in one of the hills facing the ocean where the storm made landfall.

00;19;51;00 - 00;20;07;12
Jose
And it's possible that if the winds were 155 at sea level, that they got Category five conditions at 3 to 500 feet above sea level sea. So it could have been that they just got some extreme winds as a result.

00;20;07;13 - 00;20;13;18
Hal Needham
Yeah, it sounds like it was just such an intense hurricane hitting much of the island there in 2017.

00;20;14;21 - 00;20;37;18
Jose
Yes. Yes, 2017 was I in one of the worst seasons possibly in history? You go, Harvey. Devastating Texas. You have Irma getting the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Cuba, Florida. And then you have Maria wiping out Dominica because it hit Dominica before hitting Puerto Rico. And Dominica was a Category five hit.

00;20;37;18 - 00;20;39;05
Hal Needham
Actually, it was really bad there.

00;20;39;08 - 00;21;05;28
Jose
Yes. They measure 100 or 160 miles an hour officially in the airport, which is quite a measurement. And then it hit Puerto Rico. You also hit a it's finally the Virgin Islands. Irma hit the northern Virgin Islands like Saint Thomas and Saint John and the British Virgin Islands. And Maria hit the remainder. The remainder of Virgin Islands was spared from Irma, which was St Croix.

00;21;06;06 - 00;21;06;13
Jose
So it's.

00;21;06;13 - 00;21;07;09
Hal Needham
Like everywhere kind of got.

00;21;07;15 - 00;21;10;02
Jose
Yeah, Everyone got a piece in 2017. Yes.

00;21;10;15 - 00;21;15;13
Hal Needham
How did he end today. How did that comparative Maria or other storms that you've chased.

00;21;16;08 - 00;21;47;07
Jose
To me is comparable to Maria? Uh, probably a slightly less intense here where we experienced a storming being in Punta Gorda, maybe comparable. We'll have to see the damage from the barrier islands. When the storm made landfall, we were it was probably comparable. You know, the winds were 150. Operationally, we'll see whenever, you know, the post assessment by the hurricane center to see if they bring it up or keep it to 1:50 a.m..

00;21;47;13 - 00;22;15;14
Jose
So it was a comparable storm in terms of winds, uh, impersonally, Maria was to me slightly stronger in the first half of and the second half of Maria was comparable to this one. This one was probably even better in my view. This is my best in terms of footage. This is my best hurricane experience. Just because this I got to get one more.

00;22;15;29 - 00;22;25;23
Jose
Yeah, I got to get come on. I got to get clear footage there. Full daytime hurricane front, half the eye and the backside.

00;22;25;27 - 00;22;27;08
Hal Needham
Is like the whole story. You know.

00;22;27;18 - 00;22;50;15
Jose
This one? This was a textbook hurricane experience. So in that regard, personally, Ian is even, you know, uh, this probably in terms of quality of the footage better for me than Maria, which hit part of the night. I couldn't get fully in the eye. Maria But in terms of the the intensity of the winds, Maria had a little edge.

00;22;51;12 - 00;22;58;28
Hal Needham
It seemed like the second half was stronger here than the first half. And it came in like it came in so fast. You said that happened in George in 98, is that right?

00;22;58;28 - 00;23;10;25
Jose
Yes, It was a very similar experience. It was like a five minute window coming from gale force winds to extreme conditions. Total was just so fast.

00;23;10;25 - 00;23;13;10
Hal Needham
How the how the second half came in, it was amazing.

00;23;13;13 - 00;23;19;26
Jose
You know, it's and like George, the second half was stronger than the first half. Yeah.

00;23;20;14 - 00;23;25;06
Hal Needham
How often have you seen the second half? Stronger than the first half is.

00;23;26;04 - 00;23;54;07
Jose
It's hard to tell. Usually in the deep tropics, the second half when they're moving from east to west, right, Moving west and west northwest, as they usually do in the Caribbean. The second half tends to be stronger just because the right front quadrant or the right quadrant is on the second half. But in the in the U.S., when the storms are usually recurring, usually the front half is the stronger one.

00;23;55;02 - 00;24;04;04
Jose
But in this, in the case of Ian, just like the case of Charley, it's incredible. Same location, 18 years apart, both.

00;24;04;04 - 00;24;04;26
Hal Needham
Around Punta Gorda.

00;24;05;15 - 00;24;20;10
Jose
Identical intensity is the only difference is the size of the storm and the tracking speed in which Charley was racing northeast. But Charley had a second half that was arguably stronger than the first half, just like this one.

00;24;20;17 - 00;24;31;06
Hal Needham
One more question for you, Jose. We're here in a parking garage. So the duration of this, this is a large, slow moving hurricane. Is this a longer duration than you've seen or have you seen longer than this?

00;24;31;22 - 00;24;46;09
Jose
This kind of reminds me a little, Maria. It was a long duration storm as well. But Maria was moving at around ten miles an hour or so. This was probably longer duration. I think this was moving at, what, eight, eight or nine?

00;24;46;09 - 00;24;47;25
Hal Needham
Yeah, it's fairly slow. Yeah.

00;24;48;01 - 00;24;57;04
Jose
Yeah. So this was a long duration lots of damage and we'll see about the flooding. Well, we'll know tomorrow.

00;24;57;17 - 00;25;12;21
Hal Needham
Well, you've been really passionate about hurricanes and tropical weather for a long time, so you've been in a lot of communities that have gotten hit really hard. Do you have any insights for our listeners on how people can be better prepared and maybe how they can build better? I mean, what are your thoughts from your decades of chasing hurricanes?

00;25;13;18 - 00;25;42;08
Jose
Yeah, I think it takes governments, private sector and, you know, NGOs to work together to make communities more resilient to to survive. And not only hurricanes, but, you know, like all these climate events, like coastal flooding. Right. That is like Louisiana having, you know, what's going on in Louisiana with the with the islands are being disappearing as we speak.

00;25;42;28 - 00;26;09;00
Jose
So it takes the entire society to build up. And we have good examples in Japan and in Taiwan. We built it for typhoons. They you know, they are if we really want to build for hurricanes, there are very good example to follow. Also, Bermuda really has a very good and the Cayman Islands have good building codes.

00;26;09;14 - 00;26;17;19
Hal Needham
Yeah, I've heard there are places especially that frequently get hit by strong tropical cyclones they often build for this stuff. Maybe we can learn and follow the way they're doing it.

00;26;17;22 - 00;26;34;01
Jose
Yes. Yes, indeed. And it it's a large investment at first, but in the longer term, it's a it is less costly for the country to have to fund all these billion dollar disasters which are increasing every decade.

00;26;34;02 - 00;26;35;15
Hal Needham
You mean building more with concrete?

00;26;36;01 - 00;26;43;04
Jose
Yeah. Oh yeah. That's what I'm. And also trying to make grids on the ground, whatever possible they have. Yeah.

00;26;43;14 - 00;26;44;18
Hal Needham
Making grids on the ground.

00;26;45;10 - 00;26;49;06
Jose
Yeah. It's like the electrical grid which is a very expensive undertaking, but.

00;26;49;20 - 00;26;50;20
Hal Needham
They're putting it underground.

00;26;50;20 - 00;27;05;16
Jose
Oh, yes. But if it can be done one community at a time, or when you build a new community, that will be like having guidelines say, okay, your building, you need to build the community to be resilient. You know.

00;27;05;22 - 00;27;18;10
Hal Needham
Maybe it costs a little bit more upfront, but someone was telling me recently it costs more to build a wood house twice than to build a concrete house once, you know. So it's that idea if you're thinking long term, maybe building more resilient makes sense.

00;27;18;10 - 00;27;37;23
Jose
Yes. And they're doing it, you know, in the coast. FEMA, you know, FEMA, whenever they get grant money for rebuilding houses in the barrier islands, they're asking for them to be built on columns and pylons. And that's part of their plan to make communities more resilient, to.

00;27;38;13 - 00;27;46;11
Hal Needham
Jose, thanks for taking time and it was really good to meet you here. You're a friendly guy and it was a lot of fun to chase this storm together and documented. It was pretty intense there for a while.

00;27;46;17 - 00;27;49;06
Jose
I had a blast with you. It was fun.

00;27;49;14 - 00;27;52;10
Hal Needham
Safe travel travels back and I hope to see you in a future storm. Thanks.

00;27;52;10 - 00;27;55;09
Jose
I'll see you in the next storm.

00;27;55;09 - 00;28;22;18
Hal Needham
Jose. Wow, how cool to go back with you in time and hear about your recollections of hurricane landfalls back to the late 1990s. Really cool history there. It sounds like for Jose, this was his best documentation of a hurricane as the first eyewall, the eye passage and the second eyewall all hit during daylight. He said Ian's winds in the second eyewall were comparable to what he experienced in Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017.

00;28;23;00 - 00;28;47;11
Hal Needham
His suggestions about how to build better for hurricane impacts were excellent. He talked about government, the private sector and nonprofits coming together to coordinate better planning and building. He mentioned how we could model our efforts and building and planning after East Asia, a place very well adapted for typhoon strikes. He also mentioned how putting electric lines underground could help reduce power outages and speed recovery.

00;28;48;01 - 00;29;14;15
Hal Needham
After Ian winded down that Wednesday night, I had another night of car camping in the garage. I think all of the chasers did the same thing. Anyway, I for new storm chasers out there, when a hurricane wraps up in the dark, you'll be much safer to car camp in a secure location like a parking garage than to drive around on dark roads with no streetlights, navigating debris to find a hotel and a big hit like Ian, you'd have to go a long way to find a hotel with power.

00;29;14;21 - 00;29;38;13
Hal Needham
It just makes sense to shelter in place in a safe location for the night. The next morning, bright, bright sunshine and a conversation with a woman named Elaine, who I interviewed. When I drove down to North Fort Myers, I found that North Fort Myers experienced devastating wind damage, whereas the southern part of the city down by southern Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach observed both wind damage and flooding from storm surge inundation.

00;29;39;24 - 00;29;45;00
Hal Needham
We're here in North Fort Myers, Elaine. So this was quite a big storm here. A hurricane.

00;29;45;00 - 00;29;59;19
Elaine
Is. Oh, it was incredible. It was just and it was never ending. It was just I want to say the wind stopped maybe around 11 last night when it started around 1230, 1:00 in the afternoon, you had.

00;29;59;19 - 00;30;01;04
Hal Needham
Maybe ten or 11 hours of.

00;30;01;04 - 00;30;13;05
Elaine
Really it was it was awful. We tried to go out maybe around 10:00 at night, but as soon as we did that, the big gusts would come. It just was incredible.

00;30;13;05 - 00;30;19;07
Hal Needham
He said This was really long duration compared to a storm like Charley that also hit with a lot with strong winds but went through quickly.

00;30;19;08 - 00;30;31;10
Elaine
Right? Yes. Oh, yeah. I mean, I was for Charley. I was basically there were two houses that got damaged. And as you can see, nobody escaped damage from this.

00;30;31;15 - 00;30;33;07
Hal Needham
And this area looks like every house has.

00;30;33;17 - 00;30;40;16
Elaine
Every roof carports. It's just incredible. It's just it's so devastating.

00;30;40;16 - 00;30;47;10
Hal Needham
And I asked you how many people left and you said for Irma five years ago, almost everyone left. But this time not as many people now.

00;30;47;10 - 00;30;52;10
Elaine
No, I mean, a good amount did, but definitely more people stayed.

00;30;52;17 - 00;30;55;04
Hal Needham
Why do you think people stayed for this and not for Irma?

00;30;56;15 - 00;31;17;08
Elaine
I think they felt it wasn't going to hit. It was going to stay more to the west. And then and then it turned to the east and stayed up until, let's see, today's Thursday, maybe Tuesday. They were talking. It was going west.

00;31;17;13 - 00;31;18;03
Hal Needham
More Tampa.

00;31;18;03 - 00;31;28;26
Elaine
More Tampa, Tampa was going to get hit really bad. And then all of a sudden, it must have been Tuesday night. Oh, there's a turn. It's going to get.

00;31;28;26 - 00;31;35;15
Hal Needham
A lot more Sarasota and Venice and then more eventually coming in Florida. And and really the worst of it was Fort Myers.

00;31;35;18 - 00;31;48;15
Elaine
Yeah, I feel we got a lot of that. I hear I really do. And I have never and we're not these homes have been here for 30 years, 35 years.

00;31;48;23 - 00;31;53;20
Hal Needham
So do you think a lot of homes took on damage in this storm, that they did not take damage from Charley?

00;31;54;16 - 00;31;56;01
Elaine
Yes, definitely.

00;31;56;03 - 00;31;57;21
Hal Needham
So this is the worst that y'all have seen it?

00;31;57;22 - 00;31;59;19
Elaine
Yes. Oh, yeah, definitely.

00;32;00;08 - 00;32;10;24
Hal Needham
Thanks for your insights on that. Yeah. Will help. Lastly, do you feel like Irma was not as bad as people expected and so maybe some of them thought it was a hurricane before Irma.

00;32;11;00 - 00;32;31;20
Elaine
They kept talking about the surge and I don't think that been exaggerated. Irma No, no. They kind of like, yeah, Irma definitely was nothing like this. Yeah, I know. So and it didn't last as long. It was during the night, if I remember Irma on and on and on and on.

00;32;32;00 - 00;32;33;24
Hal Needham
You know. Lasted a long time.

00;32;34;06 - 00;32;36;14
Elaine
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It would just wouldn't.

00;32;36;18 - 00;32;40;01
Hal Needham
When I was in Punta Gorda and it just kept going and going, you know.

00;32;40;01 - 00;32;47;02
Elaine
Yeah, it was, you know, you're like stop, stop. But it just wouldn't stop. Thanks for joining us tonight.

00;32;47;02 - 00;33;24;13
Hal Needham
I hope for a quick recovery. Both Jose and Elaine shared about the long duration of Hurricane Ian. This was important for several reasons. In 2004, Hurricane Charley made landfall at the same location, Cayo Costa, near Fort Myers, also as a Cat four hurricane. But Charley and Ian had some major differences and large geographic size and slow forward motion meant that the hurricane force winds slammed locations for a much longer duration during hurricane in long duration, hurricanes inflict more wind damage because some trees and building materials fail late in the storm.

00;33;24;18 - 00;33;49;07
Hal Needham
From the cumulative stress of the wind over a long time, long duration hurricanes often dump more rain as well, and more trees fall as there is a wind stresses really hitting them in waterlogged soil. Large, slow moving hurricanes also generate higher storm surges than smaller, fast moving hurricanes like Charlie. This is a big reason why Ian pushed a lot more storm surge and Charley did way back in 2004.

00;33;49;24 - 00;34;15;22
Hal Needham
This difference may have been fatal to some who may have thought that their home is safe from storm surge because they weathered category four Hurricane Charley with no surge. So when Category four Ian showed up, they thought they were not in danger. News reports have shared the heartbreaking reality that Ian was pushing a catastrophic storm surge that inundated communities from Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach to Naples, including densely populated southern parts of Fort Myers and Cape Coral.

00;34;16;16 - 00;34;40;04
Hal Needham
On my first surveillance of this area, I encountered numerous abandoned cars and entire neighborhoods that were flooded. Don't miss out on next week's Geo Trek podcast when I'll bring you some survival stories, insights and perspectives from storm survivors of Hurricane Ian. Storm Surge. This surge impacted tens of thousands of people cut off the causeway this Sanibel Island, and put into motion at least three days of search and rescue operations.

00;34;40;17 - 00;35;01;21
Hal Needham
We'll have more stories on the ground in the next week's episode of the Geo Trek podcast and we'll also get into talking a little bit about how to build better. One of the things I really do after a hurricane is try to really observe what buildings performed well and what buildings did not perform well and any insights I can give you on how to build better from this work on the ground in Hurricane Ian.

00;35;01;21 - 00;35;24;04
Hal Needham
I'll bring that to you as well in the next episode of the GEO Trek podcast. Thanks to John, Jose and Elaine for their insights in this week's episode. We wish Elaine and her neighbors a quick recovery from this devastating storm over there in North Fort Myers. On behalf of the GEO Track podcast team, this is Dr. Howe. I'll catch you on the next episode of the Geo Track podcast.

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