Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Tropical Storm Colin

Note to self:
Do not leave the JEEP window open during a tropical storm.


Tropical Storm Colin first appeared here as low,rapidly moving,rain teasing, clouds who kept their water and moved on.

The forecast called for heavy rain and moderate winds, so we weren't in hunker down mode.

Still, Colin was coming our way in a pretty direct manner, which motivated me to take care of a few hurricane season items that I had put off.

I refreshed and refilled the Hurricane Season 60 gallon plastic (food safe) barrel on the porch, so that is now checked off the list.
Out here on the frontier, when the power goes out, so does your water.
I like water.


I also did a major blueberry picking from the backyard patch. The bushes are so laden with fruit that even with the 
preColin breezes, branches were snapping under the weight.

I don't like to do massive pickings.
Part of the joy of a big blueberry patch is walking through it and just gorging on them. That makes my inner and outer primate very happy.

My fear was that the predicted heavy rains would knock most of the ripe berries to the ground and snap even more branches.

So I picked.

I did eat while I picked though, so my inner primate was pretty stoked about that.




Here's my pond/bog the morning before TS Colin arrived.

The water level is very low and the pennywort is just begging for me to toss the gappling hook in there and pull out great masses of it.

There's a post TS Colin picture later on in this tale for comparison. 



There's a point, just down hill from Cedar Key School, where the Gulf pours over the roadway on every tropical storm, ... so of course as soon as school let out (early release), I popped off my work shoes and slipped into some boots.

While I was putting on my boots, my teacher pal Cheryl stopped by ... also on her way to the flood zone.

So we walked down hill into a strong onshore flow.


At the foot of the hill, a two-lane road separates the Gulf from this little motel, ... only, on this day, there was no separation. 
The Gulf flowed up and over the road with every wave, flooding the lower motel property.





In the short time we were there, the water over the road rose from mid-calf to over the knee. 

I knew I couldn't stay too long unless I planned to stay the night, because SR-24, the only road off the island, was barely above sealevel and would soon flood.

Once they closed the road, I would be trapped, so I cut short my storm fun sooner than I would've liked.

Cheryl snagged a photo with what we thought were the Weather Channel guys, but they turned out to be the "Weather Nation" guys.

Never heard of them.


I made it off the island ahead of the road closing and waited for the storm to arrive at PFHQ.

It took awhile, but a storm that had been strangely devoid of rain, finally cut loose and we had delicious tropical flavored downpours for most of the night.

...and some BODACIOUS lightning ... the FLASH-BANG kind.

It was all over by dawn.




This is our pond on the morning after TS Colin.
The water level is nicely up for a single rain event.


This is the same flooded location ... the very NEXT DAY.

Florida :)




The frogs and I were really happy about the rain.

9 comments:

Laura L. said...

Interesting to see the before & after photos. Glad that there's no real damage (except maybe to the Jeep interior?). Love the frogs.

Ms. Moon said...

I've been saying the same thing recently, over and over.
"Florida."
Adding, "I love it. If it doesn't kill you."
And mostly, it does not.
Great pictures.

Anonymous said...

Looks like quite a storm there. Love hearing those froggies celebrating the rain!

threecollie said...

Lookit all that water! So glad for you! I am also so glad the kids and I visited your lovely locale last year. Your tales mean so much more now that we have actually seen Cedar Key, the Gulf, and all the wonderful places there. Whenever I get a little down, I remember spending New Years Day 2015 in Florida, putting my toes in the water on both coasts....and, ah, the birds! That is a whole nother wonder.....

Misti said...

*ah* Makes me miss Florida quite a bit.

Pablo said...

Amazing that it's such a "shrugged off" phenomenon down there since you're so prepared and experienced. If something like that happened up here, it would be the source of indignation for years.

Glad you're okay.

Mark P said...

Those blueberries! Yum!

I wish we could get some of that rain up here in northwest Georgia. Our part of the county is in what's considered severe drought conditions right now, even after a fairly wet early spring.

Wally Jones said...

Enjoyed the post! Down here in the central interior (Polk County), we also experienced the "flash-bang" night and for the next day could have marketed the property as "water front". Well, also "water back" and "water side". Back to normal now. Steamy with pop-up showers.

Great looking berries!

Emily Shorette said...

I'm sorry to be off-topic, but I'm having a problem with my computer that you might be able to help me with. It's when I'm in Blogger. (All other areas seem to be working fine) Whenever I push the button that contains the words 'new post', the word 'loading' comes up - and it lasts a LONG time. Eventually, it does seem to work, but I have to wait 45 minutes or longer! Have you had this problem, and what are you doing to fix it? My computer is an HP Chromebook 14 (laptop) and you can contact me as follows:

thoreaugreen@gmail.com

Thanks again for your help.