WHERE DID IAN GET ALL THAT H2O
Woman's Video of the Water Completely Sucked Out of Tampa Bay Before the Hurricane Is Going Viral
Hurricane season is off to a terrifying start, with brutal hurricanes hitting back-to-back: first Fiona, which ran its destructive course from Puerto Rico all the way up to Canada, and now Hurricane Ian, which is battering Florida. Currently, the scenes coming from South and Central Florida are nightmarish.
Take Tampa right now- because the impending storm is so massive, it's literally sucked out all the water in Tampa Bay. Tampa resident @ohnoitsco shows us an up-close view of the bay and it's so ominous.
Uh-oh. That is a very, very bad sign. Tampa Bay has a pretty large volume normally, so the fact that it has been drained and receded that far out mean that there's literally millions of gallons of it suspended in the storm, waiting to be dropped down over Florida. This is going to be a rough one. Or, as a worried @kerrie_anne1973 put it, "WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN…..😳."
"That’s the universal sign for RUN," exclaimed @darkxprincesssx. "Then that water arrives as a rushing storm surge. During Hurricane Sandy in NY, it sometimes reached 50 feet," @x.y.z_1.2.3 stated. They're right- when that water comes back, it's going to return with a vengeance.
Despite the clear danger, some hobbyists saw a great opportunity to explore the drained bay. "Is it terrible of me to immediately think about all of the amazing shells that could be found right now? Once a shell hound always a shell hound 😉😁," said @tishwydick. "I totally would be out there collecting treasures 😂," echoed @xobreeoxo. "If anyone dropped their phone in the bay or lost their wedding ring nows the time to go get it," quipped @ukejuke100.
While we ourselves admit that the idea of looking around and seeing what's normally at the bottom of a bay is a really intriguing idea, we hope that other curious minds put their safety over their curiosity. A Category 4 hurricane is nothing to mess around with in the best of circumstances. We hope that everybody going through Hurricane Ian right now will make it out safe, and our thoughts are with them.
Hurricane Ian Sucks Tampa Bay Dry Ahead Of Landfall
Stunning video and photos taken along Florida’s western coast show Tampa Bay waterways sucked completely dry ahead of Hurricane Ian’s arrival Wednesday.
Ian’s powerful winds pushed water away from the shore and into the gulf, similar to what happened just before Hurricane Irma’s arrival in 2017.
But experts warned that the receding tide, called a negative storm surge, is only temporary and that water will return, likely at much higher levels.
“Don’t go out there. It’s so dangerous to go out there,” National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “Even if you see the water receding, it’s not the time to go out there and look at it and collect shells or whatever it is. We’ve seen this, and these types of storms, when the winds come down, when the winds decrease, that water comes back in and can be incredibly dangerous.”
Florida’s Division of Emergency Management echoed that message on Twitter, warning that the returning water could be life-threatening.
The massive Category 4 storm made landfall near Cayo Costa, roughly 90 miles south of Tampa, later Wednesday afternoon.
The low-lying Tampa Bay area is predicted to see a storm surge of four to six feet, with extreme beach erosion and water that may extend several miles inland, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm surge will be greater farther south along the coast, with some areas at risk of a surge of up to 18 feet. In addition, hurricane will dump up to five inches of rainfall per hour as it crosses the state while losing speed and prolonging the deluge, said Graham.
“This is going to be a storm that we talk about for many years to come,” Graham said.
A man walks through the mudflats as the tide recedes from Tampa Bay as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday in Tampa, Florida. Ian intensified to just shy of catastrophic Category 5 strength. (Photo: BRYAN R. SMITH via Getty Images)
Water from the storm, not its wind, creates the highest risk to human life, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell noted. She cautioned that flood dangers don’t end with the storm’s passing.
Only a few inches of rushing water can carry away a moving vehicle, Criswell said. She urged people to move to higher ground if water is rising around them, and cautioned against using a generator indoors due to possible carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Hurricane Ian is and will continue to be a very dangerous and life-threatening storm and this is going to be for the days ahead,” Criswell said.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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