Three Reasons Why Irmas Florida Strike Wasnt as Bad as Forecast
Valerie Bauerlein
Sept. 11, 2017 2:22 p.m. ET
Irma evacuee Frank Rizzo woke up in his hotel in South Carolina on Monday, bracing for the seemingly likely news that his 3,600 square-feet waterfront home in Cape Coral, Fla., was a total loss.
Instead, he learned from a neighbor that he didnt lose a shingle. What happened?
Hurricane Irma was a powerful, sprawling storm that decimated parts of the Caribbean and as a weaker tropical storm, it continues to inundate northern Florida and the South Carolina coast. But the storm didnt obliterate Miami, inundate the Gulf Coast with excessive storm surge or destroy thousands of homes on the west coast of Florida as feared.
First, Irma ran low on fuel.
Then, the winds changed.
A third reason was the weakening of the eyewall, the whirling vortex of intense wind and heavy rain at the center of a hurricane.
Real devastating beyond the hype storm
Or one I experienced a few miles inland as an 11 year old boy