That is true. The local weather men on 2 different channels explained that the sustained cat 5 speeds of of over 165 mph, are upper level winds, they get the data from satellite, doppler radar, and sonde drops. The ground level speed (below 100ft)is definitely less. But even 100 with gusts to 130 can tear some stuff up. 75% of Houston County, AL is with out power and trees are down across roads all over the place. That's 80 miles inland. Now that its definitely headed away from me, I tried to drive back home and had to turn around because of trees and power lines in the road within 5 miles, and here, the sustained winds are only about 40, but the gusts are snapping trees left and right. I have fuel and my chainsaw in truck but ain't about to try cutting up trees till it quits raining later tonight. I may just wait till tomorrow.
Alright! That's the way we did it after Ivan and Katrina. But it was hot humid days, with mosquitos and hot humid nights.
HALLELUJAH! So glad to hear you are all safe!
When Sandy hit NJ we really had never experienced a full on hurricane. We are in the northwest area and figured we'd get rain, wind, and lose power so we did the logical thing. We went to bed. We slept soundly. Next morning we awoke to no power as expected. Then we took stock. A tree had fallen and ripped out the power lines. Next door the pole had snapped in half. The woods around our home (literally edging our 1 acre property) looked like a circle of toppled dominoes. We were looking at the root systems of trees some with trunks 3 foot across. Our house and other sheds were untouched. It's an uneasy and surreal feeling. We spent 2 weeks starting on October 29th (hubbys birthday) cooking and living outside unable to leave due to blocked roads. We only went indoors to sleep. It was warmer outside around the fires. But we made hurricane stew (everything from the freezer cooked together) hot chocolate (melted ice cream heated on the grill) and baked chocolate chip cookies. We survived and were in good moods because we had survived intact in spite of the chaos around us.
Watching the news and knowing you are ok has brought back that bitter sweet memory. So glad you are well.
