| Fr. Frank |
10-16-2018 01:04 AM |
The damage beginning just 25 miles to the east of me is catastrophic. We're sending a pickup truck loaded with 800 lbs of ice and fresh food to the western part of Bay County almost every day out of my little 20 person church. There's lots of fresh water being brought in for now from FEMA, Budweiser and Sam's Club, but the immediate need is for ice fresh food, particularly for children and the elderly in rural areas, which are largely forgotten by governmental aid organizations.
The "Official" max measured wind speed was 155 mph, as measured by buoys dropped into the storm by Hurricane Hunters. However, Tyndall AFB, before the building came apart, with a static anemometer measured sustained wind speeds of 141 kts (162 mph), gusting to 166 kts (191 mph). The anemometer at Base Ops was destroyed in the building collapse, and so the wind speed is "unverified", because there is only an eyewitness account with no records remaining.
Simply put, unofficially Michael was the 2nd strongest named hurricane to ever hit the United States, 2nd only to Hurricane Camille in the 1960's, whose strongest measured wind (of which we know) was 163 mph. Meteorologists believe Camille came ashore with even higher wind speeds, but all anemometers in the area of landfall were destroyed in the storm.
It's believed the most powerful of all time was the rather compact 1935 Labor Day hurricane which hit the Florida Keys with a recorded atmospheric pressure of only 892 millibars, and winds at an estimated sustained wind speed of 175-180 mph. Hurricane Wilma briefly dipped to 882 millibars during a time when the sustained wind speeds were measured at 183.3 mph, but was at 928 millibars when she came ashore
That atmospheric pressure level is commensurate with the central pressure of an EF-5 Tornado, which has wind speeds of 200+ mph.
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