Marco Island | Prepare for Hurricanes

Hurricane Season is upon us! And although I would like to keep upbeat and not report the negative, the Weather Channel and CNN are not really welcome here if they don't report what happened afterwards.


As the storm left us they drove around the Island and then promptly left to follow the story on the other coast. Nothing interesting here to show. Imagine the number of customers that we got calls from saying they heard that there was a 17 foot storm surge and that was the last they heard about Marco Island. There was no surge and no flooding, we were on the right side of the storm. Now there was a little bit of flooding in Naples...


Marco Island and Naples took a direct hit of a category 3 hurricane in 2005 with Wilma. We were back to normal business within days with a few electrical issues as a result of the salt on the power lines. Most damage was to older roofs, lanai cages for houses and lots of landscaping damage. Here is a link to two interesting sites which show information regarding the before and after of Hurricane Wilma:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/wilma/photocomparisons/collier.html
http://bcs.dep.state.fl.us/reports/wilma/wilma1.pdf

We are a community that has had a lot of development after the Miami-Dade hurricane standards came into play. So many of the houses faired well. But even the homes built by the Deltona Corporation had little if no damage.


This information I give to you in case we have another storm incident, I think the information is incredibly useful. Print it up and tuck it away for the time you will need the information. I personally liked the reporting from the local ABC and NBC stations...


Userful Information


Marco Island's Hurricane Preparedness Manual


Preparing the Elderly for a Hurricane


How to prepare your boat for a storm



Important Websites for Information:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/hazard/hurricane/index.shtm
City of Marco Island: http://www.cityofmarcoisland.com/
Collier County Emergency Management: http://collierem.org/
Collier County Schools: http://www.collier.k12.fl.us/

TV Stations:
ABC News (local) http://www.abc-7.com/
CBS Wink TV (local) http://www.winktv.com/
NBC News (local) http://www.nbc-2.com/Wilma-Details.shtml
Fox News (National) http://www.foxnews.com/
Weather Channel

Webcams:
Marco Marriott Beach Webcam
Beachcam looking North on the Beach


Newspapers:
Marco Island Sun Times http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2256
Collier Citizen http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/collier_citizen
Marco Eagle Newspaper http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/marconews