As of 2pm on Wednesday 9 October 2024, Hurricane Milton was scheduled to make landfall somewhere between Tampa and Sarasota this evening. At the least, it is supposed to be one of the most powerful storms ever to strike Florida. <\/p>\n
Many storm tracks show the eye of the hurricane passing directly over my home at Indian Lake Estates at 8am on Thursday morning. At best, we’ll get a ton of rain and lots of wind up to 70mph. At worst, we might have a pine tree or two come down on the house or on my newly redone pool cage. And maybe some windows blown out. Jim is riding out the storm here, and I do not believe that we are in any great danger. My new generator should kick in the moment we lose power tonight. Older daughter Jennifer is in nearby Babson Park and is nervously waiting to see what Milton has in store. I wish her and Erik the best tonight. <\/p>\n
It was raining here when I woke at 6:00am, but quit by nine. At 11:30am I walked 1.3 miles and then swam 24 lengths in my lap pool, a bit more than 1\/4 mile. Between noon and 1pm there was lots of thunder in the neighborhood and some heavy rain. Our phones lit up with Polk County tornado warnings. So far, all is fine. <\/p>\n
In 2004, five years after I moved here, the eyes of Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne all crossed right over Indian Lake Estates. Charley brought the strongest winds, and moved quickly, not officially reducing power to Category 1 status until after passing by Polk County. When the 2004 hurricane season started, it had been 44 years since Polk County saw major damage from a hurricane. In 1960, Hurricane Donna crossed over Florida, leaving behind a swath of destruction in its path. The three storms did $29.8 billion worth of damage total across many states. I think that I lost power for almost two weeks after Charley. <\/p>\n
Right now, I am most concerned for friends (and everyone else) living in Southwest Florida. David and Michele Pugsley in Plant City, accountant Chip Jackson in Clearwater (evacuated to Alabama), old friend Linda Robbins in Sarasota — I have no idea where she might be, Cliff Beittel and Susan, and Pat Fishburne, in Fort Myers — the moment Pat heard of the new storm, she flew to North Carolina, and John Johnson huddled up on the ninth floor of his Condo in Naples. I told John — we both attended Brooklyn Technical High School — to evacuate once the water reached the ninth floor.<\/p>\n
I am hoping against hope at least to some degree that the storm weakens considerably. There is always the possibility of reverse storm surge in Tampa Bay as occurred with during Hurricanes Irma and Ian not long ago. All the water emptied out of the bay. Check it out here.<\/a> <\/p>\n By 2:30pm, it was raining hard here at ILE and the wind is picking up. I hope to head down to the lake for a look see in a few minutes. By the time I finished the previous sentence the wind was ripping through the trees. <\/p>\n I have been hard at work with Arash Hazeghi updating The Art and Science of Photographing Birds in Flight.<\/a> We should have some news to share soon. <\/p>\n I continue working with the v2.02 and v2.02 Sony a-1 Firmware updates and will begin work on announcing the 2025 January San Diego IPT tomorrow.<\/p>\n Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you are well and safe. <\/p>\n Update: I added two nice images created in the rain at 5:20pm. <\/p>\n
\n| \n | This image was created on 9 October 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Seated in the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB<\/a>-supported Sony FE 600mm f\/4 GM OSS lens<\/a> with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter<\/a>, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.<\/a>. ISO 2000. The exposure was determined by Zebras with ISO on the rear wheel: 1\/200 second at f\/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. RawDigger<\/a> showed that the exposure was perfect. AWB at 3:31:45pm on rainy afternoon. <\/p>\n Tracking: Zone\/AF-C with Bird-Eye\/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version.<\/p>\n |