GEER Hurricane Irma - Cape Coral to Key West (initial data collection)

Hurricane Irma was a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Irma developed from a tropical wave around the Cape Verde Islands. The National Hurricane Center started monitoring it on August 26, and it was classified as a tropical storm named Irma on August 30. Moving across the Atlantic Ocean, Irma increased in strength. On September 5, Irma was classified as a category 5 hurricane with wind speeds up to 175 mph (280 km/h). Irma made landfall in the U.S. on Cudjoe Key (near Big Pine and Summerland Keys) in the morning of September 10, still being a category 4 hurricane, and made a second landfall on Marco Island, south of Naples, on the same day as a category 3 hurricane. In preparation for Hurricane Irma, more than 6.5 million people were ordered to evacuate (http://www.pbs.org), 134 fatalities were associated to the storm, and damages were recorded of more than $50 billion (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41231323; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma).
Two teams from the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, supported by the National Science Foundation, were deployed to investigate geotechnical impacts of flooding, storm surge and wave forcing in Florida in response to Hurricane Irma in September of 2017. The teams worked collaboratively with federal, state, and local organizations in Florida. This initial data collection presents the field observations of the GEER team made during the field reconnaissance from September 24 to 28, 2017. The survey region extended along the coastal zone from Cape Coral to Key West.