Hurricane Idalia (Merged) Florida, Georgia, Carolinas

[Be Free]

All of those videos were shot within 2 miles of my house.

All of the boats dragging were going up-river, against the flow. That was all storm surge. They were anchored about 2 miles up from the mouth of the river. The bridge they went under was another half-mile upstream.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by Be Free

All of those videos were shot within 2 miles of my house.

All of the boats dragging were going up-river, against the flow. That was all storm surge. They were anchored about 2 miles up from the mouth of the river. The bridge they went under was another half-mile upstream.

Did they float back down river when the storm surge receded?

[s/v Jedi]

They went with the flow, not against it. The storm surge is like a super high tide; many rivers reverse flow with the tides.

Tie to mangroves, trees, anything sturdy ashore. Don’t rely on the cleats on a floating dock.

[Montanan]

Article and Video link of Saildrone riding the waves inside Idalia:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...a39d9efd&ei=48


A Saildrone passed through the north side of Idalia’s eye wall and then into the eye of the hurricane itself. According to NOAA, the vehicle then passed through the southern eye wall, all while multiple dropsondes were deployed over the Saildrone from the NOAA P-3 aircraft.
NOAA said this Saildrone withstood sustained tropical storm force winds for more than nine hours and waves as high as 31 feet.

[GordMay]

Hurricane Idalia scattered flamingos across the U.S., from Florida to Ohio
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens...ngos-1.6959728

[Be Free]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Did they float back down river when the storm surge receded?

They came back down the river after the surge subsided. I'm not sure where all of them finally ended up. At least one, I think it was a small Hunter, got hung under the bridge. It's mast was bent but not broken. It was towed back out.

[Be Free]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

They went with the flow, not against it. The storm surge is like a super high tide; many rivers reverse flow with the tides.

Tie to mangroves, trees, anything sturdy ashore. Don’t rely on the cleats on a floating dock.

Sorry, I should have said they were going against the normal downstream flow of the river. They were being pushed upstream by the storm surge significantly faster than the river runs even when it is at flood stage.

There are no mangroves or anything else in this area to tie off to and the basin where they were anchored is normally reasonably well protected. They all made it through the hurricane winds without dragging but once the storm surge made it that far upriver there was nothing along the shore that would have held them.

I agree with you about trusting cleats under these conditions but the one boat that was tied to the floating dock was still tied to it. The problem was that the dock was no longer attached to the shore.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Be Free

Sorry, I should have said they were going against the normal downstream flow of the river. They were being pushed upstream by the storm surge significantly faster than the river runs even when it is at flood stage.

There are no mangroves or anything else in this area to tie off to and the basin where they were anchored is normally reasonably well protected. They all made it through the hurricane winds without dragging but once the storm surge made it that far upriver there was nothing along the shore that would have held them.

I agree with you about trusting cleats under these conditions but the one boat that was tied to the floating dock was still tied to it. The problem was that the dock was no longer attached to the shore.

Yes, that always happens: the floating docks are not secure in zones when storm surges occur.

The video clearly shows countless trees along the shore and a single line to the base of a tree would prevent this. We have been through many hurricanes and always do this. Places like Tractor Supply sell “Tree Savers” that are great for this. Also, they sell anchors you can screw into the soil in case there isn’t even a tree or anything else. I always have some of these on board, incl. small ones for the dinghy. Other items to have: foldable tree saw, hatchet, infantry shovel and cargo straps