The Sanibel Island lighthouse is seen after Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Wilfredo Lee AP
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The Sanibel Island lighthouse is seen after Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Wilfredo Lee AP
Mash image to enlarge
Aww… standing tall and proud among the battered palm trees and vegetation…
There were a cluster of buildings at the foot of the lighthouse, but I can’t even see foundations now. Radical changes to the beach as well.
Elsewhere on Sanibel and Captiva, there are areas where visible damage on overhead imagery is so light, that both Cedar Dave and I originally thought there was a mistake, and pre-storm imagery had been posted. You have to really zoom in to find it.
Since we know the surge made it to Periwinkle Way, on the spine of the island, a lot of sheetrock, and insulation will need replaced, and my guess is that the whole US will be hurting for window glass replacements, but overall, structural damage west of the causeway seems light. A few buildings down here and there, and fewer still missing.
Not at all like Ft. Myers Beach.
Maybe... to be expected. Before the computer models got as good as they’ve become, my rough model for surge forecasting was zero to minimal at center and left of the eyes’ landfall, out to a maxima at landfall of the right eyewall, then tapering down to minimal, 2 to 3 radii out.
Geography and geometry always play a role, but in general, that’s what I see here, too. Huge storm, very powerful, and long lasting, but it didn’t ramp up to cat 5 level till shortly before landfall, and the widespread 25+ foot surge it might have sent in, didn’t have time to build up.
The power curve has me guessing. Ian ramped up after Cuba relatively slowly. That jump to cat 4/5 mostly happened at night, and then landfall failed to knock it down as rapidly as I expected.
Best guess... a pocket of exceptionally warm water just before the core started coming ashore?