Hurricane Ian - Information Center

Hurricane Ian Town Hall Meeting - Watch Meeting | Password: #5ts@gPX

Community Specific Information:

Entry Gate - Please be aware that the Resident Gate is now opening at a slower pace. Please slow down and allow space behind the car in front of you or the gate will not open properly.

Parking - As our landscape is continuing to deteriorate, please be cautious of falling limbs and fronds. Please park away from trees.

Office Staff - The Property Management Team has returned, please reach out to the following for assistance:

Buildings 1, 2, 3 & Seagrove - Please contact Site Management at sitemanagement@dunesofnaples.com

Buildings 4, 5, 6 & 7 - Please contact the Concierge Center at grandepreserve@dunesofnaples.com

Ian Timeline:

Please see the below timeline prepared by Mary Danitz:

Photos and timelines

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/03/photos-show-recovery-days-after-hurricane-ian-hit-florida-carolinas.html

https://www.foxweather.com/watch/play-5f1be7f29000e7b

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/30/hurricane-ian-historical-ranking-florida/

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php

In the days leading up to the hurricane the Dunes staff went through full force storm preparation and shuttered all the entrances to the buildings, turned off the gas to buildings and secured elevators, where possible. The Dunes website was a tremendous resource, as we foresaw management would not be able to individually contact owners through the post storm process.

09/28/2022 Wednesday
Ian came in and wiped-out power and internet. Power was lost at the Dunes approximately 8am ET.

Apx 2pm, storm surge waters took out roadways and swept away beaches and access. Water did not recede quickly, and the Dunes roadways were not navigable. Earlier the Techs site shut off gas, cleared drains and worked until it was physically unsafe to be in the storm. They attended to interior building issues during the storm and started again early Thursday morning with wading boots when the roads were not passable.

Cell towers were downed so ZERO calls went through. At best there was sketchy texting after the storm, we could not contact our Dunes team, each other nor our own family members. The surge came so fast that it had a current and swept in from the preserve side, overtaking the retaining walls and into the garages.

Sea Grove's 20 lower carriage homes all had flooding interior to the units. All 40 units were affected with their elevators and lower spaces and stairwells storage.
All 7 towers had catastrophic damage to the elevator systems. Buildings 1-3 will be without elevators for over 4 weeks.
All 7 towers had flooding in the lower garages and more than 450 cars were total losses.
Significant roof damage happened to all 7 towers. Crowther has reviewed all roofs, including Sea Grove and stabilized damage.
The Grande Preserve office was flooded and requires significant restoration and repairs.
All pool pumps were lost to the surge.
Electrical systems below the flood lines will have to be replaced.
Landscape damage will be ongoing due to the salt invasion of the plant system and irrigation waters.
Storage lockers were significantly affected in many buildings, and there was personal loss due to blackwater conditions.

09/29/2022 Thursday
Vendors and staff on site who cleared the road and conducted life-safety checks on the owners in residents. No injuries or deaths were reported in the Dunes, which is not the case everywhere locally.

Multiple sets of remediation service companies were onsite taking care of the 7 buildings and Sea Grove and made tremendous triage progress in the areas affected to mediate damage.

The Clean Up
All elevator pits were all full of water, most over 15' high. All elevator pits have been washed and sanitizer applied, and we are notifying each building systematically as the providers repair the elevators.

The garages have all been pressure cleaned at least once, sanitized and pipes cleared. As cars are towed from the garages, the clean up and sanitation continues. The garages will have multiple cleaning passes over the coming weeks.

10/06/2022 Friday
Management had a post-storm zoom meeting with all staff to update on progress, and status.

10/10/2022 Monday
Staff have been working every day on property since the storm began, and management meets at least twice daily with the restoration teams on the various towers and Sea Grove progress.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Storm Statistics

$60 billion-plus in insured losses — Ian is estimated to have caused more than $60 billion in private insured losses just in Florida, making it the second-largest disaster loss event on record, according to the industry trade group Insurance Information Institute. Ian trails Hurricane Katrina of 2005, which caused $89.7 billion in inflation-adjusted insured losses.

Three landfalls — Ian made landfall as a hurricane three times. It first came ashore as a 125-mph Category 3 storm near La Coloma, Cuba, early on Sept. 27. On the afternoon of Sept. 28, the storm struck Cayo Costa, Fla., as a Category 4 with 150-mph winds. Two days later, Ian made its final landfall near Georgetown, S.C., as a Category 1 at 85 mph.

Fifth-strongest winds — At 150 mph, Ian's landfall wind speed in Florida ties for the fifth-strongest on record in the United States, a mark shared by seven other storms. It ties for the fourth-highest landfall speed on record in Florida. The highest winds are rarely recorded, given a relatively sparse observation network, but observations show impressive gusts across Florida at 140 mph in Cape Coral, 135 mph in Punta Gorda and Solana, 112 mph in Pelican Bay and 110 mph in La Belle. Places as far from landfall as Tampa and Daytona saw hurricane-force wind gusts.

12-foot-plus storm surge — A surge or rise in ocean water above normally dry land at the coast, as high 12 feet was reported by DeSantis shortly after landfall in Florida on Wednesday afternoon, and forecast values of 12 to 18 feet are suspected to have occurred in some spots. The Weather Channel's hurricane expert Rick Knabb indicated some areas were likely above 12 feet, "but it takes time to collect water marks." Tide gauges in Naples and Fort Myers posted their highest water levels on record.

940 millibars landfall pressure — The strength of a hurricane's winds is linked to the how low the atmospheric pressure is at the storm's center; pressure lower than 980 millibars is typically thought of as conducive for hurricane formation. Ian rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 3 hurricane with a 952-millibar pressure as it struck Cuba. This probably helped the core of the hurricane exit the country in a healthy condition, setting up a second round of rapid intensification that allowed for a 937-millibar minimum pressure.

Thousands of lightning strikes — In the time just before landfall, as many as 1,000 lightning events were detected in the eyewall — making it one of the most electric eyewalls in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Overall, as many as 34,000 lightning events were recorded in the storm, according to scientists with Vaisala, a company that operates a national lightning network. That places it in the high end of tropical cyclones for lightning. While the mechanisms behind intense eyewall lightning are not fully understood, it tends to favor atypically powerful storms.

Cat 4 (major)
130-156 mph
Catastrophic damage will occur: Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.