Howdy, all…
Every now and then during the day this past Wednesday and Thursday, I would check the progress of Hurricane Ian. As landfall approached, my heart went out to the people in Southwest Florida. Ian came ashore near Cayo Costa and Punta Gorda—nearly the same place Hurricane Charley landed in 2004. Watching the TV coverage, my heart sank further. The area is devastated. We used to have family friends in North Ft. Meyers, and we used to take boat rides on the Caloosahatchee River in that same area. Photos and footage after the storm show some extent of the devastation—a lot of what was there is gone and will never be the same. Ever.
Ian wasn’t through with Florida, though. He plowed across Central Florida, bringing heavy rains and flooding to Orlando, Daytona, and St. Augustine before taking his leave of Florida (as a Tropical Storm) near the Kennedy Space Center. He meandered out to sea, regained strength, and took aim at the South Carolina coast. Thursday night’s forecast had Ian making a second landfall in Charleston and basically following I-26 on a path that would have taken the storm over our house. Ian had other ideas—he meandered north and east before making landfall near Georgetown, causing damage in Charleston, Pawley’s Island, and Myrtle Beach. Currently, what’s left of Ian is soaking Virginia and West Virginia and is headed to New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
I’ve lived in South Carolina for 21 years. Ian was only the second tropical system I’ve done any sort of prep for—Florence in 2018 was the other. However, I’m no stranger to these kinds of meteorological events…
1972: Hurricane Agnes was the first time I experienced a hurricane—only I wasn’t in the Southeast. We were vacationing in New Jersey when Agnes blew through, dumping a lot of rain on the area. By the time she hit, she was a strong tropical storm. Agnes was one of two events that keep the summer of 1972 vivid in my memory. The other? I came down with chicken pox while we were there. Chicken pox and tropical rain—not a combination I can recommend to anyone…
1979: Hurricane David was projected to make a direct hit on the Broward County coast on Labor Day weekend. David reached Category 5 strength when he came ashore in the Dominican Republic. After that passage, David weakened to a minimal hurricane, but gained strength. My brother and I spent the weekend at a friend’s house in Sebring, since David was supposed to be past Ft. Lauderdale by Labor Day. Yeah. We drove home as David made landfall in West Palm Beach. David would skim the Florida coast, barley on land, until he went to sea near New Smyrna Beach.
Honorable Mention for 1979: Hurricane Frederic. David was supposed to be a major storm when it came ashore in Florida and Frederic was supposed to be his weaker brother. Sure. Frederic would intensify to a Category 4 storm when it came ashore near Dauphin Island, Alabama.
1981: Tropical Storm Dennis would come ashore in South Florida in August. He dumped a lot of rain on the area. I know this because I was camping that week.
1986: Hurricane Charley came ashore near Apalachicola and traveled east, finally leaving via the Carolina coast. I remember it because for a while it was predicted to cut across Florida and pummel the Daytona Beach area. Embry-Riddle cancelled classes for a few days…
1989: Hurricane Hugo. While Hugo only briefly brushed the Florida coast, he hammered South Carolina. Friends of the family in Savannah and Hilton Head suffered some substantial damage. Hugo would be a harbinger of future storms—he came ashore near Sullivan’s Island as a tightly wrapped Category 4 storm, and actually accelerated after making landfall, carrying hurricane force winds as far north as Charlotte. The path of destruction was easily traced through the state, as it appeared someone took a 40-mile wide buzz saw and cleared a path from Charleston to Charlotte.
1992: Hurricane Andrew. Andrew didn’t seem like he would amount to much in his early days. But as he approached the Bahamas, Andrew rapidly gained strength and passed the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm. Once clear of the Islands, Andrew made a beeline for the Southeastern Florida coast. Initially predicted to come ashore in Ft. Lauderdale, he jogged to the south and made landfall near Homestead, south of Miami. Andrew was a tightly wound and very dry storm—some likened him to a 30-mile wide tornado. The damage Andrew caused made him the most expensive storm to hit the United States at the time. After wrecking South Florida, Andy zoomed up the Gulf of Mexico and made a second landfall near Morgan City, Louisiana.
Andrew brought a lot of issues to light. The housing boom in Florida through the late 1970’s and 1980’s saw housing developments spring up seemingly overnight. One such development, Country Walk, was leveled. It was discovered that there were some construction anomalies—the roof trusses were only tenuously attached to the house, and the roof sheathing was likewise poorly attached. In one study, one out of every ten staples meant to attach the sheathing actually hit the truss—the rest missed entirely. The building codes were reviewed and reworked after Andrew.
The insurance industry took a huge hit from Andrew. Several companies went bankrupt. The Florida legislature enacted several joint underwriting groups in response.
Homestead Air Force Base was heavily damaged, and expected to be closed under BRAC. However, the base was repaired under an austere budget. The active-duty unit, the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, was dispersed and later reformed at Aviano AB, Italy. The Air Force Reserve unit, the 482nd Tactical Fighter Wing, remained at the renamed Homestead Air Reserve Base.
In addition to all this, there is a very real psychological effect on people, as they see their homes and everything they ever had swept away. South Florida saw a marked upswing in divorces and suicide attempts. I went to Homestead a few times to help my boss at the time rebuild his mother’s house. I had been there before, and I could not find any landmarks. The area was more or less devoid of trees. Roofs were torn off. It was not a pretty sight, and I can see how stress would take a very large toll on people.
There was a rash of looting after Andrew, too. It took President Bush to activate the National Guard and impose curfews to slow the crime wave. Imagine—you’ve lost pretty much everything, yet here comes someone who wants to steal what little you have left.
FEMA was slow to react—they had never dealt with anything of this magnitude. Relief supplies were slow to arrive on site. This issue afforded me a ride on an Army CH-47 Chinook. The Florida Aero Club started a relief drive, and a week after the storm a friend and I went to help them at North Perry Airport. As we loaded carts of water bottles and dry goods, a UH-1 Huey would land, we’d load it, and the helicopter would depart. Another one came in, loaded, and left. Then the Chinook landed. We packed it per the crew chief’s instructions, and then we looked at him. “Who’s going to help you unload?” He looked perplexed. We both volunteered. So, that afternoon I found myself following I-75 south to Homestead General Airport. We unloaded, and took a quick look around. I looked into a hangar. The doors had been blown in, and in the far corner of the hanger stood a mountain of airplanes. As we departed, we flew east and then north along the coast, where I got a good look at the damage along Cape Florida and the Miami Bayfront area.
After Andrew, people started paying attention to warnings when the National Hurricane Center started tracking storms—and this not just in Florida. As history has shown, Andrew set records. Records are made to be broken…
1998: Hurricane Georges. He was supposed to make landfall in Ft, Lauderdale. I was in an apartment that was little more than a double-wide, so I went to stay with my brother in his apartment—a concrete-block-and-steel (CBS) building. As it turned out, Georges remained south, and came ashore in Key West.
Georges would be the last tropical weather system I would, by necessity, need to track to see if it would hit close to where I lived in South Florida. I did follow the 2004 season, where Charley, Frances, and Jeanne criss-crossed the state, and 2005, when Wilma came ashore late in the year and wreaked havoc in South Florida.
Of course, everyone watched as Katrina devastated New Orleans, much as Harvey did in Houston and Maria did in Puerto Rico. Andrew’s crown as “most expensive disaster” has been given away several times since 1992. I believe Ian will now wear that crown.
Each of these events made impressions on me. When Florence looked like she would be a strong storm and head inland, I did full-on hurricane prep—I stocked up on batteries, bottled water, provisioned with non-perishable foods, filled my bathtubs, and was ready for a bad time. Florence stayed near the coast and dumped lots of rain over the Pee Dee region of SC and Wilmington and Fayettville in North Carolina. As with Ian, we dodged a bullet…
To my friends who have been affected by Ian, my heart goes out to you. I’ve contacted most of you directly, and if you need anything, anything at all, please get in touch. I may only be able to lend moral support, but every little bit helps. For those who want to help who are able, the American Red Cross is one of several groups who are taking donations. Again, every little bit helps. Some things will take many months or years to recover. Some things will never recover.
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As a further point to my last entry, I want to recommend several YouTube Channels to my scale modeling peeps. These modelers do great work, and each of them will be the first to tell you that in some cases they don’t know if what they’re doing will work, but are willing to try and deal with the results rather than throw their hands up and say “I can’t!”
The first is David Damek, aka PLASMO. If you look through his history, you will literally see him try new things as he makes an effort to expand his horizons. He’s gone from basic kit construction to 3D printing and resin casting his own parts. https://www.youtube.com/c/idaemonplasmo/videos
Armor modelers, here’s your guy. Martin Kovac, aka Night Shift. His results are stunning, and he’s very much a teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/c/NightShiftScaleModels/videos
Another guy who covers a multitude of subjects is Metodi Metodiev, MM Scale Models.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MMScaleModels/videos
Greg Phillips will plainly tell you that he does what he does--and he does it well.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uGdoOTmEsyn7m3ewRVDeQ/videos?app=desktop
Jen Wright, aka Jenesis, is another modeler who shares how she does things. She reminds you, like all the others I’ve referenced, that SHE does things this way, but it might not necessarily be the way YOU would do them.
https://www.youtube.com/c/JenesisDesignsandModelcraft/videos
Scale-A-Ton also shows some interesting techniques, such as using kitchen plastic wrap to texture fabric. He’s another jack-of-all trades, and I enjoy his presentations.
https://www.youtube.com/c/Scaleaton/about
Finally, if you build ships, you need to follow Ebroin Song. He does everything using hand tools, and isn’t afraid to rebuild assemblies to fit his resources. His sculpting work is excellent, and all in all his work is exquisite.
https://www.youtube.com/c/EbroinSong
Take a look at these channels. There are literally thousands of scale modeling channels on YouTube, and I’ve found these to be the ones I go back to time and time again. Some of the others are fun to watch if you want to get the ASMR feels, but for learning content, these are my go-to channels.
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That’s all I have for now. Thanks for reading, and if you can, please consider making a donation to help the victims of Ian.
In other words, be good to one another. As always, I bid you Peace.