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Do I stay or do I go ?
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Having seen and heard for the last week of the terrible and complete destruction of coastal communities along with their inhabitants in Katrinas path, I for one have changed my attitude about staying on the barrier island where I live if a Cat 3 or higher is about to make landfall on our coast. Last year we stayed as Frances and Jeanne ripped the Space and Treasure coast apart. Cat 2 force winds that we saw did an incredible amount of damage. But nothing like what Katrina did to the Gulf coast. I can`t imagine what those people went through when things started to get critical as the surge came ashore, coupled with 135+ mph winds and they new right then that they had made the wrong decision to stay put and brave it out and now its to late. Here in Brevard County we have a coast line with sand dunes that have been refurbished with new sand because so much was washed away last year. At my beach, it looks fantastic.The dune line is all that protects us from hurricane storm surge. Now if a storm of Katrinas porportion came on shore here with a 30 ft storm surge and god for bid at high tide, I think we`d have a big problem here also. In fact there would be a big problem anywhere with a Katrina type storm, it doesn`t matter where you live in the coastal areas. All in all, after what we`ve all witnessed with Katrina, if the same where coming our way , we who live on the coast when asked " Are you staying or leaving" we will think back at what we saw on TV in Mississippi after the storm and if you have any sense at all you will leave and still be alive to see another day.........Weatherchef
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Unregistered User
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(Unregistered)
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Wed Sep 07 2005 03:38 PM
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Re: Do I stay or do I go ?
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Well.. I can't tell you weather you should Stay or Go. If it were me, I think I would leave the coast. In the Bible, God states for us to build our houses on rocks, now I understand what he is saying. Take care......And God Bless !!
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Re: Do I stay or do I go ?
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While Katrina has made all of us think twice about our future evacuation plans, I believe strongly that on the east coast of Florida, we are not nearly as prone to a storm surge the size of Katrina. The shallow water of the Gulf, with it's curving, bowl-shaped configuration is a recipe for storm surge, whereas the relatively deeper, near-shore water of the Atlantic and the much straighter coastline to dissipate the wave buildups, results in smaller storm surges for East Coast Atlantic storms vs. Gulf Coast storms. While the winds do plenty of damage, clearly (Ivan, Katrina) the storm surge is much more destructive, and I think the Indialantic area would never see a surge of 25-30 ft, unless it were a tsunami. Ok, never say never, but bottom line is I think a Cat III Atlantic storm and a Cat III gulf storm do not produce equal storm surges, so I'm not sure it's a good idea to extrapolate the results of Katrina to future storms on the East Coast of FL.. I've looked at a site online that covers this, but I don't have it right now. If I find it, I'll edit this and provide a link.
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