The End!?! Irma Damage

at 129th Street in MB

 Hurricane Irma did minor damage in our town, this being the worst of what we have seen a few blocks south of us - although having your roof blown off might not seem 'minor' to the owner. We've heard the worst hit in this area were north-facing porches and screened-in lanais.

Pass-A-Grille

Here a tree toppled and took out some electric lines and tipped a utility pole.

We found a water leak in our condo which we have to investigate. It's not much and I didn't look up when returning home so only found it now. We think maybe Irma blew water in through a gap with the exterior transom above the door - hummmm . . .

All I need now is a good rainstorm to blow the remaining sand out of the screens on my balcony.


And we found a few of the railing bars were blown off the condo walkways. As you can see from the empty parking lot out front, it is September, the quietest month, and not too many people are here.


Further afield, a few manatees had a spot of bother . . . with the storm surge that sucked water out of all the bays.

The Week; 22 September 2017

someone's roofing felt

We spent yesterday evening (when it's cooler!) picking up roofing felt from the beach out front.The sand is very dry and the beach feels 'fluffy.' The city beach rackers and public works team are very busy with lots of rubbish removal, so this seemed the least we could do. So who's roof do you think was on the beach????

The USF Coastal Research Lab is now surveying our beaches to see what impact Irma made; there is some suspicion of erosion on the upper beach just in front of the dunes and along the foreshore where waves break; we did see a man swimming out and then holding up a long stripped pole at various depths offshore on the 18th - maybe surveying water depths? To us it appears the offshore sandbar has shifted slightly out to sea, but sand has returned to cover the additional exposed groyne pillars (see posts of 13 & 14 September).

Slightly smaller Hurricane Category 5 Maria started on a very similar storm path to Irma, but the jet stream and some High Pressure systems are in a different place, so Maria devastated Puerto Rico, but has missed Florida. The forecasts have been much more accurate this time, but that really doesn't help if you are facing total destruction; for the Caribbean islands it is now 'The End.' We are now in height of hurricane season which lasts until 30th November.  Jose, now a post-tropical cyclone, is still active off the east coast of the USA, and producing wind and flooding. Not sure anyone has told the weather there is a 'season,' but hopefully all of us have now had the worst of it

wattsupwiththat.com

The dolphins have been very visible in calm Gulf of Mexico waters, with lots of leaping and tail slapping (this could be play, fights, mating or food hunting).  A bit of fish tossing too, along with one guy hunting in very close to shore. If only I had CB's camera and talent! He was so close I could see him underwater.

groyne to left and dolphin fin center right
still some piles of seaweed on the beach awaiting a high tide to be swept away