Hurricane Passes 200 Miles to our West

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

Around 6:30 Tuesday night I went to one of our favorite gulf picture taking locations, Crystal Beach Florida.  This is looking out to the west…the group of islands out there is Honeymoon Island State Park…beyond that is the Gulf, and those clouds out there are part of Hurricane Michael.

The flag at Crystal Beach, which is a community within Palm Harbor…not really a ‘Beach’ as one would think of Clearwater Beach, or other real beaches in our area…but the flag was flying due west, but it was a light wind…had I got the picture just 15 seconds earlier, the flag was still. 

Last night we have a few downpours, had a constant 10-15 mph wind with a few gusts up in the 20’s to 30’s, and just a few downpours which lasted for very short periods of time…as shown in the picture above.

    

Marcia and I went back around 11 am today to see the difference between last night and today.  Around 1:15 it will be high tide, and they are expecting another foot or so from what it was when we went by.  Above you can see that the pole on the far left with a bird on it does not show up in the picture to the right…and in the picture to the right where a bird looks to be standing on water, it was standing on the pole which is clearly above water in the picture to the left.

    

These two pictures above clearly show how much higher the water is.  Now compare that to the same trees taken back in December 2016 below…

…the vegetation is much more mature today…but look at how low the water “normally” is!  A vast difference.

   

Here is the fishing pier taken today (left), and the same pier taken back in December 2016.

And this is what happens when you take your lens off in a air conditioned car, step out to take a picture in the 85 degree, 110% humidity … my eyeglasses did the same thing!

Here is an area in Tarpon Springs.  The boat dock, which does not float, has only another foot or so before it is under water.  The sea wall has about two feet before the water comes over it.  Last night there was a fisherman here and I asked him how high it was last night compared to other times.  He said that last year during the hurricane that passed through to the east of Tarpon Springs, that the water level was way, way down…the winds were pushing the water out away from shore, unlike the hurricane Tuesday which was to the west…it all depends upon which way the wind blows.

      

As I write this, the category 4 hurricane has hit the Mexico Beach area of Florida, just to the east of Panama City and Tyndall AFB, and just to the west of Port St. Joe and the Apalachicola River Wildlife area.  Devastation is going to huge…wind and storm surge has never hit this area during our the history of our nation.  The storm will do damage all the way up into Georgia..and in the Carolinas.  By Thursday it will be in the Atlantic…leaving a wake of clean-up…and who knows how many deaths. 

Dodging Hurricanes, Visiting Family

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

As of October 7th, this is the forecast of the late season hurricane that is going to hit Florida.    Impact was forecasted at Destin Florida…

As of this morning…the impact has moved 60 miles to the east, closer to Panama City Beach.

As of 3 pm, they are talking about a ‘major hurricane’, but still hitting the Panama City Beach area.  Good for us…bad for them….a major hurricane has winds over 110 MPH, and gust at 120-130…tropical storm winds in the Tamp area…not good.

 

Above is what a Category 5 storm will do…from a 1 through a 5.  This storm looks to be a Cat 2, perhaps a cat 3.  “IF” a Cat 3, our roof may cut loose…but as long as it keeps heading north, we have nothing to worry about.

Don’t know if we will need to, but we are prepared to bring the motorhome over to the Winn-Dixie near our condo ‘just in case’ we lose power.  With MS, Marcia needs to have an air conditioned environment…and frankly, without MS, I do too. 

For the past week we have been visiting with family, and just settling in.  Above is a picture of Marcia’s youngest brother Skeveos (father’s side) and his wife Linda. They came by on Saturday to visit…it was a short 4 hour visit.  They live in Brooksville, about an hour north of us, and we did not see them at all last time we were home, so that was very nice.  The night before we went to Mama Maria’s in Tarpon Spring with her brother Mike and wife Sandy and grandchild Logun.  Logun brought McD’s with him…his favorite place to eat at, along with his Nintendo Switch.  Logun is autistic, about 10 years old…when his Nintendo froze up, he brought it over to me, I restarted it for him, and he was so happy that it wasn’t broken. 

On Tuesday of last week we met Marcia’s brother Dean (mother’s side) and wife Caryl at the Lakeland Cracker Barrel for an early lunch.  After a couple hours there, we headed back.  We took the motorhome because it is so much easier on Marcia on a long trip like that…and we parked fairly close to the door…which was nice (see red line above).  On the way there and back the traffic was fairly light…however once back to the condo, after dropping Marcia and Skruffy off, I heard that there was a major wreck off Interstate 75…

A news report told it this way:  “

The multi-vehicle crash occurred after 4 p.m. Tuesday. Florida Highway Patrol troopers said a 40-year-old female driver was entering the northbound entrance ramp of I-75 when she lost control of her 2004 Toyota Sequoia. Investigators said the SUV rotated across the northbound lanes of I-75, and into the path of a tractor-trailer.

Both collided, sending the SUV into a barrier wall along the overpass and the truck over a wall, and down onto Fowler Avenue. Troopers said the tractor landed on another vehicle, killing the driver inside. The wreckage ignited a fire which burned for more than 20 minutes.

WOW!  This was about 45 minutes after we had passed this intersection!  That sure makes one think about things, that’s for sure….

As of 5:30 pm this is the latest on Hurricane Michael.  Yes, we are in the ‘red’ (bottom right of the red), but outside of the path.  This storm is a fast moving one…so even if it does hit us, the rain will come and go pretty fast.  Tomorrow I will take a few things over to the motorhome…today I turned on the fridge just in case we lose power.  By Wednesday night, on the way to church, I am sure all I will have to do is shut everything down.  However, we are prepared to bring it over to the grocery store near us if needed…it just does not look like that will be needed.  Always better to be prepared….