Before I get into the meat of this post, I wanted to thank all of my friends & family who reached out to see if we were making out okay over the last 48 hours. It’s humbling knowing all the people that are thinking of you when real shit’s about to go down. Happy to report is K.C., Lilly, & I made it through Matthew unscathed. Our thoughts now turn toward the folks in coastal Georgia and the Carolinas who will have to deal with this nonsense next…
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| Image: CNN |
If you’re reading this late on Friday night or on Saturday morning, it looks like the hurricane has finally passed over our palatial suburban estate bringing a lot of wind and rain, but fortunately, no flooding, roof damage, or power loss. We live in a spot that’s a bit removed from the beaches and just far away from the St. Johns River to not be in an evacuation/flood zone. At least this time.
As attractive as beachfront or Intercoastal property might seem to an “angler” like me, scenarios like this certainly make me glad I don’t own any. St. Augustine got hit really, really hard. Water breached the seawall fairly early on Friday afternoon and Avenida Menendez was quickly under several feet of water, as were all the businesses that run along it.
Makes me sad, “the Old City” is one of my favorite places in the area, even with all of the crazy tourists running around. I probably shouldn’t leave out that Jacksonville Beach & Daytona Beach appear to have been hit pretty hard as well. It’s going to take a while before those places are the same again. I hope once the water recedes, there are some (organized) opportunities for normal folks like me to help these areas. We’ve got a few gallons of bottled water I’m sure somebody could use.
Fortunately, we just need to deal with some light backyard debris, which I’m so thankful for.
My neighbor looks to be in the same boat, but for whatever the reason, the excessive rains created a small pond alongside his backyard fence. At least it’s pretty far away from his house. I guess he just needs to wait for it to drain through the sandy soil…
I don’t know, I think I’m ready to move a bit more North and/or West. Almost four years in and I still haven’t taken to Florida living. Blizzards may suck, but at least they don’t threaten to kill you. You just stay inside and drink all day. Jack Daniels & a snowblower or floods & projectiles thrown at your house at 90 mph? Seems like an easy choice to me.
I've been thinking about you and your family. And wondering if this Florida life will stick… Glad you sailed through it.
Glad you and yours are ok. We toughed it out here in north east Georgia with 15 MPH winds, but I know they're not so lucky down on the coast. Thanks for the update.
Michael, good to hear you and the family came through unscathed. My friend down toward Orlando did as well and I hope the folks in the old house in Deerfield Beach did well too. The house is solid so they should be OK.
Thanks for the good news, Michael. When my wife finished her engineering degree back in '98, I tried to convince her we should move to Florida (I was already traveling for work every week, so all I needed was an airport.) She refused. Something about loading up horses into a trailer and running whenever a hurricane was inbound. A wise woman. We ended up around Missoula, MT instead… No hurricanes.
Thought I felt some good vibes coming from Utah. We'll see. When we moved down here we said it would probably be a “5 year thing”… we're coming up on year 4…
Thanks JT. Glad to hear you're good too. St. Augustine is an absolute tragedy. 🙁
If it helps any, I'm pretty sure Deerfield Beach is OK. My inlaws live in Boca, and the storm actually missed them, came in a little more north than projected, so they just got rain. Think I read the fishing pier got some damage though. The fishing pier up my way in Jacksonville Beach had a whole chunk taken out of it!!!
That is a wise woman. Montana…hmmm…
Glad to hear you and the family didn't have to deal much with Matthew. I really couldn't imagine the waiting. Welcome back to planet Troutrageous!
I'm glad you and your family are safe. We got a bunch of rain. Over 6 inches in a 24hr period. My back yard was a small pond. I had to get creative to clear out the water.
Thanks Howard, nice to be back. Was getting stir-crazy.
Hate so much rain. I won't even ask what you did to get rid of the water…but if you want to share…