SUMTER COUNTY
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What to Expect from a Hurricane Travel Before – Turnpike/I-75 north of SR 44 (5 lanes feeding into 3 lanes) will be a mess all the way to Atlanta (at least double normal travel times). Individual Medical Needs Support (electrical medical equipment, etc.) – Research Public Health help during storm ASAP (start with county Emergency Management website, phone). Tornadoes – storm may spawn multiple tornadoes or none High winds – no travel when winds over 45 mph including emergency vehicles (police, fire), some roof damage may occur
Heavy Rains – 5”+ some minor flooding, some houses impacted with 10”+ of rain ( V. of Charlotte, south of 44 unknown) Move rugs, stuff on floor higher if water has crossed your yard and getting near your doors.
Power – most of The Villages (underground service)
Fuel (gasoline, diesel, propane) – store no power, no fuel except if generator, the ability to re-stock gas stations, etc. may be limited. Emergency vehicles will get priority. Debris – stack near curb but not in street. Clean-up will not be fast. Help – you are limited to your resources for the first couple of days afterward. Community emphasis will be on those with medical needs and getting roads and businesses open. Don’t become a victim during this time! Be smart, think before you act, and review/restock your first aid kit now, just in case. Neighborhood gates This gates will be removed beforehand and may not return until a week or two afterward.
Hurricane Preparation
The hurricane preparation content listed on the
three web pages below comes from a number of years of experiences.
Below those listing is more information on hurricanes in general.
Hurricane Facts
The annual "Hurricane Season" begins on June 1 and ends on November 30,
although hurricanes can, and have, occurred outside of this time
frame. The National Hurricane
Center (NOAA) predicts and tracks these massive storm systems, which
occur, on average, 12 times a year in the Atlantic basin.
A hurricane is a tropical
cyclone located in the northern hemisphere with winds of 74
miles (119 kilometers) per hour or greater that occurs especially in
the western Atlantic and is
usually accompanied by bands of rain, thunder, and lightning and
sometimes tornadoes.
Most hurricanes carry with them individual
supercells, which are rotating, well-organized thunderstorms.
These are typically the storms that spin up monster twisters in the
Mid-West.
The Northeast quadrant of the storm is the most
powerful and can have bands of winds and rain reaching out more than
100 miles ahead of the eye of the storm. The winds move in
bands around a
counter circle pattern; so if the eye were to pass close to you the
winds will reverse direction.
Severe
damage is usually the result when the eye wall of a hurricane
crosses the coast line and creates a storm surge that pushes inland.
Factors affecting the height of the flooding are timing of the tides, flatness
of the land (marshes) near the coast, and the intensity of the storm.
Of the 600 people who died in hurricanes, tropical storms and tropical depressions during the hurricane center study's 30-year time frame, 354, or 59 percent drowned or were killed from some other trauma as a result of flood
What was Hurricane Irma like in Sumter County?
Citrus County is to our west and has the Gulf Coast for its western border; so we did not experience any storm surge. Along the border we share with Citrus County is the Withlacoochee River that flows from the Green Swamp in the southern end of Sumter County. For people living along the River and a few other places, it was a flooding event. For those outside The Villages, it was downed trees, loss of power, winds, and rain. For those in The Villages the power stayed on (underground lines, except for a few houses here and there) so it was a wind and rain event as the eye wall traveled across Citrus County. There was some street flooding in The Village of Charlotte and Orange Blossom and even though storm water got close to some houses. In the older sections of The Villages there were tree limbs down. More generally, there a few shingles blown off and some bushes and trees partially uprooted.
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Last Update: 05/05/2019 © Copyright Sumter County ARES. All Rights Reserved. |