Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist
http://82.221.129.208/.yb7.html

HURRICANE MICHAEL DAMAGE A LOT WORSE THAN I EXPECTED

Still, all the main damage is on the shoreline, caused by storm surge but it is really stunning damage. I do not think a cat 1 would do that type of damage. I will keep watching for new stuff to come in and at this point think I might have been wrong about the intensity. If so, the wind map does not work for this. I have not decided yet, if there is still no widespread damage showing away from the shore in any photos a week from now I'll still say cat 1 or 2, but I have not missed the fact that the shoreline area is absolutely annihilated.

Either the hurricane was really bad or there was piss poor planning against storm surge. Oftentimes homes are only built a couple feet above sea level around the beach and get wiped out by even mundane hurricanes due to the storm surge. If there are not even destroyed trailer park pics from inland, I am going to conclude that was the case here, but for now I am at least going to mention that I have not missed noticing how incredible the shoreline damage is.

[NW comment: Was the difference in damage due to the use of DEW weapons?]

There are some oddities however - the tree damage is not what I would expect with such massive property damage, which would indicate storm surge caused most of the damage. Homes hold up better in the wind than trees do, and in with the destroyed beach homes there are perfectly intact trees. Storm surge is the opposite - trees hold up OK but homes get floated off their foundations and smashed to smithereens. So I have not decided what is what yet.

When people build on the beach in a hurricane zone they know they are taking a huge risk, so I normally don't have any sympathy, but the photos are so stunning it is hard to not feel sorry for those people.

The defining answer will be: Are the trailer parks OK? If so, it was not a cat 4. Still searching and waiting for photos.