Thursday November 10th 2022

Last night mid evening the wind started to blow and rain began to fall. It wasn’t a very heavy rain and I was sheltered from the bulk of the wind. By midnight the rain was a little heavier, and the wind was howling between buildings and trees. Shortly before I turned the TV off and went to sleep hurricane Nicole was reported to have made landfall in Florida.

I woke up once during the night at about 4:30AM. The storm sounded a little more intense than before I went to bed. It still sounded less severe than other storms I have experienced in my RV home. The next time I woke up around 7:30AM, it wasn’t raining and the wind didn’t seem to be blowing as hard. It turns out that I was in the area of the center of circulation. I can’t really call it the eye. The hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm and the center of circulation was very wide. Most of the width of the Florida peninsular at my latitude was in the center of the circulation. The east coast was getting battered by the wind and the west coast was starting to get wind blown as well.

By 9AM the wind and the rain were back from a different direction. My RV home wasn’t blocked as well from the wind anymore. The strong gusty tropical storm force winds rocked my RV most of the morning. The rain wasn’t very heavy. Shortly afternoon it was possible to walk around outside. The rain had stopped and the heavy gusts were over. This evening the wind is almost calm and no rain is in the area.

The park suffered from a few small downed branches and a couple of pieces of loose vinyl siding which might have happened at another time. The retention ponds had a little higher water level and some of the culverts were at their maximum flow. The park staff was busy this afternoon returning the pool furniture to pool side.

Other areas of Florida weren’t as lucky. In particular, the east coastal areas and central Florida wetlands that were impacted six weeks ago by hurricane Ian were at risk again. The TV stations were concentrating coverage on several condominium buildings and homes in Daytona Beach Shores. Hurricane Ian damaged the beach and seawall in front of the properties. The combination of the high tides caused by the full moon and the broad area of strong wind induced wave action from Nicole compromised several buildings. Inland areas that flooded for the first time during Ian flooded again from Nicole. Overall six weeks wasn’t enough time to recover and develop mitigations after Ian.