HURRICANES BERYL & DEBBY

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Ryban

Beryl is now a Cat 5 hurricane. The earliest forming Cat 5 in the Atlantic and only the second ever Category 5 hurricane ever to form before August.

One outlier storm obviously doesn’t necessarily equate to a product of climate change, but we sure have been seeing a lot of outliers lately. Curious to see how insurance companies react in the next few years.

I have seen some discussions recently about extending the scale to have a Category 6.

The rapid rate of intensification is incredible.

Hope you all remain safe and not get impacted by the harsh storms.

As for insurance in hazard zones, expect the cost to go up and the availability of underwriting to become lessened.

We anticipate considerably more climate migration to occur.

[Roux]

I ended up in Grenada where the edge of Byrel hit us with 120kts wind and 6m swells. I opted for a swing mooring in Saint Georges. My cat, 40' and 15tn dragged the swing mooring along like a cork. Had to support it with engines from 10:00 untill 14:00 on Monday. 2 x monohulls broke loose and ended up on the beach. (If they had skippers on it could have been prevented.) All in all Grenada got off lightly. Carriacou, Union, Mayreau, Canouan, Bequia and Saint Vincent sustained huge damages. Yachts in the boatyard in Carriacou were tumbled over.

[Montanan]

Petite Martinique took a battering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHEK-4FWXzs

"Beryl’s maximum sustained winds have now reached 165 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, and a hurricane warning has been issued for Jamaica later this week. The Associated Press reported that at least four people have been killed by the storm.

Beryl's escalation into a Category 5 hurricane is also expected to bring "life-threatening winds" and storm surge to Jamaica Wednesday, according to the hurricane center."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hurricane...134909735.html

[scherzoja]

Drone video over Tyrell Bay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhxOM6hp_6Q

[Kettlewell]

I am always struck by how all the foliage is stripped off the trees, and it reminds me of reports from boaters in other storms who found their cockpit drains plugged with debris. In Hurricane Bob we had large branches and other stuff flying over the boat from shore which was hundreds of yards away.

[Montanan]

Beryl is the first hurricane to reach Category 5 status so early in the season, made history in several ways, and none of them are good news, experts say.

“The only other major hurricane to pass within 100 miles of where Beryl is on Monday morning was Ivan in September 2004, and that was at Category 3 intensity,” . . . “These islands have no experience with a Category 4 hurricane in recorded history.”

In fact, Beryl became the first Category 4 storm to form in the month of June in the Atlantic basin, and it strengthened in the shortest amount of time on record. On Monday night, it became the earliest Category 5 storm seen in the Atlantic Ocean.

“This is the fastest rate of strengthening ever observed in the satellite era (since 1966) for June,” Michael Lowry, meteorologist at WPLG in Miami, said, adding that Beryl “took just 42 hours to go from a tropical depression to a Category 3 storm.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-hurri...203516279.html

[hpeer]

Building codes are important but so is luck. If some debries damages your house then the wind can get a purchase.

I would imagine the most critical need right this moment is potable water. Folks with big water makers and big diesel tanks to power them would be welcome.

As to foliage loss the first time we approached Dominica was a crewed months after the big hurricane of 2016 (?). The entire forest was Grey as all leaves were gone. Just this past winter I was on a hike in the Syndicate preserve and the canopy damage was still obvious. The trees are still recovering.

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by scherzoja

Drone video over Tyrell Bay (video deleted)

This is pretty severe. Most houses without roofs or heavily damaged roofs. But the Prime Minister's claim that the island was 'flattened' might be a bit of an exaggeration. Death toll surprisingly low for a storm of this severity - these must be some very sensible and prepared people.

Sadly, these are only going to get more frequent and more severe if we keep on our current path.

[ausnp84]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

No Facebook updates from either marina…. If Facebook isn’t being updated are the marinas communicating with boat owners individually or leaving them uninformed?

You’re kidding right? It’s just over 24 hours since a major hurricane devastated the island. Some folk won’t be able to get out of their communities, let alone get power, potable water, fuel or food. The cell tower was also down at last report. Yachts in the yard are about the lowest priority right now - some people need to get a grip.

N

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Statistical

I don't think anyone is refusing to accept it. The sad part is Grenada was the same option. Prior to yesterday there was only one named storm to hit it in the last 60 years. That is pretty good odds.

Sadly Grenada as a hurricaine hole is not immune to climate change. The last named storm was 2004 and now we have another one 20 years later. That is not as bad as part of Florida but the risk is rising.

With it insurance costs. I can feel my insurance provider crunching the numbers right for next year's premium increase right now. Thankfully just renewed last week so have a while before that pain hits.

There will always be exceptions to the "rule". When Super storm Sandy hit (2012) my area it was devastating. I attempted to get to the boat but flooded roads prevented me from getting to the boatyard. After the storm I found my dingy had been over turned at the dingy dock and the outboard was on the harbor bottom. My boat was a 1000 feet from where I left it still attached to the mooring. Luckily it had no damage. No storms of note have hit in the 14 years since. A year or two after Sandy I rode out a Nor'easter onboard. It is something I will never do again and made me realize that there would be very little one could do on board once the storm hits. Plus it was not fun feeling like I was in a washing machine.

Increased Insurance costs will certainly be an issue which may drive even more people to give up their boats and create a downward spiral as there will be less boats to insure and prices will increase as Insurance companies try to make a profit or drop providing policies. The risk reward equation also may push people back on land and who could blame them once places like Grenada are not the safe place they once were. Though this storm may be a one in 60 year event too. I guess the Actuaries at the Insurance companies will be crunching the numbers soon.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by DragonflyBob

That certainly could have been a factor in the disturbance behind Beryl that is no longer even shown on the maps.

Interesting. Nature doing it's work. The important thing is to try and stay out of it's way if you are on a boat.

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by mbianka

On the bright side:

"One of the main purposes for hurricanes around the globe is a temperature balance between the poles and the equator.

This imbalance of temperatures will always exist due to the orientation of the polar axis of our planet. Earth’s equator receives more solar energy, called insolation, than any other latitude on a yearly average. This insolation warms the ocean temperature, which in turn warms the air above it and keeps it warmer long into the autumn.

The Earth is always trying to spread this warm wealth around the world, and hurricanes are one of the ways this is done. Mid-latitude storm systems and oceanic currents are others.

Hurricanes, due to their size and interactions with the upper levels of the atmosphere, are very efficient movers of equatorial heat."

Hmm, not quite sure I am grasping the meaning and implication of this. Kinda feels like "cancer is a great way to move old people to the cemetery".

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by lestersails

Hmm, not quite sure I am grasping the meaning and implication of this. Kinda feels like "cancer is a great way to move old people to the cemetery".

Think of the old Moody Blues album title "A Question of Balance" as nature does what it does to equalize temperature differentials between the poles and the equator. As they say in the military sometimes you just need to "Embrace the Suck"

[GordMay]

Six Reported Dead, so far:
Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou, and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said.
Two other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where five people are missing, officials said. Some 25,000 people in that area also were affected by heavy rainfall from Beryl.
One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.

Videos:
[1:01] ➥ https://youtu.be/Zlr3KffcTWE
[3:17] ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6438300
[0.59] ➥ https://aje.io/1zi50q

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

I am always struck by how all the foliage is stripped off the trees, and it reminds me of reports from boaters in other storms who found their cockpit drains plugged with debris. In Hurricane Bob we had large branches and other stuff flying over the boat from shore which was hundreds of yards away.

I was talking to a resort manager in Key West about a recent Hurricane there. She said all the trees were stripped bare and they had three feet of debris in the garden. I was there a few months after the storm and the trees had bounced back quite a bit.

I also remember hearing that during hurricanes airborne coconuts are a real danger that can be killers if you are hit by one.