First Hand Aftermath of Hurricane Irma!
Hurricane Irma in Fort Myers
I live in Fort Myers, FL, where the eye of the storm decided to hit, and have some cool stories to tell and pictures to share concerning the storm. It became a Category 4 after hitting Cuba, but then quickly died down up the coast of FL hitting us at a 2. Thanks nature! Enjoy my footage of Irma taken with my LG Sprint phone and my underwater camera...
The Night Before When All Was Calm
Me and my friend sean (czral) decided to go downtown for the storm parties. Not many, but fun! Blu Sushi had a 50% off discount on all items, so we went there first!
Blu Sushi
I'm sure they did this to get rid of stock since the impending power loss was inevitable.
The 86 Room
The Town Was Empty
It was a little windy. We decided to go to the end of the small pier on the Caloosahatchee River.
The Cigar Bar Was Hot!
This is always a popular spot! I have this post linked to a few old ones if you want to read up!
My Friends House (Where I Stayed)
When I got there around 1 pm the day the eye hit (7:30-8 pm) the power went out almost immediately. We thought we would be able to enjoy watching our impending doom on tv for a few more hours, but no! Haha. It was all unknown after that point. Got some data on our phones to watch the track. It was difficult though. Nearly all of the Cat 2 storm was watchable from the back porch. For the eye we went inside on the 2nd floor of the 3 story house. Sean was sleeping while it passed. He woke up and we were all out admiring how calm the eye was, but we didn't know that the storm was over after the eye. It literally fell apart. Just gusts, no rain. There was still the storm surge to come after we woke up. The street was filled with water, up to 4 or 5 ft. in some places.
Here are some before pictures. This is where the winds started to pick up. Now here are the after pictures (I had to take these with my underwater camera since I could no longer charge my phone).
I recommend comparing the top right in the last two pictures. Haha. Cars across the river were all in 4 ft. of water. Ours were ok. We got lucky. If it hit us as a Cat. 4 we would have been toast.
The basement had 2 ft. of water in it. Garbage cans were stored there, so it went everywhere. My Jeep luckily survived. We had to pull 3 cars out of the mud after. Mine was one of them.
A Video I Compiled Of Storm Footage
I appologize for the language, it was exciting. Haha. Only two slips. My favorite part is when I caught the branch fall.
My House After The Storm
Just a giant oak tree fell near/on the house. Not too much damage at all. The whole tree split in half! You can see the piles and piles of branches, but still haven't even started. Got the boards off of my window after trimming enough of it.
Kayaking After, Looking At Damage
This was the fun part. Haha. Once on the street the mailboxes peeked out of the water. Some had thousands of red fire ants on them. Hitting an ant pile while kayaking could be deadly to be honest. We opened a mailbox and thousands of white eggs poured out. It was kind of gross, but cool at the same time.
The Fire Department and Police were telling people to turn around. The route around is not a quick trip. Haha. We kayaked through it and went to the convenient store. Surprisingly open with no power.
This telephone pole was broken in half!
Water Level Comparisons
Irma's Path
Talk about a great estimation! Forecasts are getting so good now we can actually trust them.
Holy cow we luckily didn't get that much water!!! The wind did get us. Should have power back here shortly! Nice detailed post man.
Thank you! It took a while. Have it forever now though.
Wow. You got a lot of good pictures. It almost looks like something from a movie about time travel or about the end of the world. Interesting to actually be there though.
Yeah. I have to say that going through the eye of a storm was on my bucket list.
Excellent reporting and footage. Glad your damage wasn't catastrophic.
I was too. It could have been much worse. Haha.