Quote Originally Posted by Jeffrey View Post
Congratulations, Capt. Wheat, very glad you missed the worst of it!

Are you going to stay at home next time a big dog comes your way?
Will depend on the storm and it’s location.

I’m very confident that we would never have been in physical danger where I was staying, even if we would have had the storm surge that Ft Myers beach did. But all my boats, vehicles and businesses would have likely been destroyed and we could have been trapped on an upper floor of the house we were in for a day or two. (We were prepared with supplies).

It was a very risky decision and I would never recommend anyone else try it.

There were lots of homes between us and the gulf, and we were about a 1/4 mile in about center island in a clients new 7 million dollar concrete and steel constructed home, all up to the latest hurricane codes, surrounded on three sides by a newly built church and two other homes all built to the latest codes too. We had minimal exposure to the easterly winds. And the second floor was 25’ above sea level.

I’d bet we had 175mph gust and 125-150mph sustained winds. The home only lost a small section of gutters.

But storm surge is a dangerous thing and I could never be 100% sure that it was a safe decision.

There was no safer option for me other than to leave 3 days before and we didn’t feel we could do that with our home and business here.

When I sell my business and retire in the next few years and only have my little apartment to worry about, I’m out of there for another storm like that.