Early Wednesday morning about 1 am I was woke up by thunder and lightning. I could hear it raining hard too. I fell back to sleep but got woke up again about 3 am. Now the lightning was constantly flashing and thunder was just rolling. The rain was coming down extremely hard. The way the wind was blowing it was blasting our bedroom window. I tried to go back to sleep but about every time I dozed off, the thunder and rain would wake me back up.
From our house looking across the street
Our neighborhood is prone to flooding. I figured the way the rain was coming down we might have a problem. I finally got up about 4:45 to get ready for work. I went to front door and looked out. The street was completely underwater and it was coming up our driveway. It was still dark so it was hard to see how bad it was. The rain was still coming down as a monsoon so it was not going to get any better soon. I texted my boss saying I was not able to get out of my garage and would be in as soon as it let up.
It did not let up till almost noon. In our area of Destin rain was coming down at the rate of 3 inches an hour. We are lucky, our house sits up a little higher than most in our neighborhood. The water got half way up our driveway but then it started to recede. Many of our neighbors were not so lucky as quite a few ended up with water in their homes. This was a bad storm for sure.
Looking up the street...that is why we could not leave the house
Many roads in Destin were closed. The Mid Bay Bridge and Brooks Bridge in Ft. Walton Beach were both closed due to flooding on the roads that lead to them. Hard to imagine but it was worse in Pensacola. They got over 20 inches of rain total. Roads were washed out, people were forced into their attics to escape rising flood waters and the sheriff used boats and jet skies to rescue folks.
Our friends Brian and Sue’s house took a direct lightning hit. Somehow the strike caused a fire in their stove. They were quick thinking and dumped a bag of floor onto the fire to put it out. All of their in-house electronics were taken out too. But at least the house didn’t burn down.
Many other friends had their houses flooded. There is going to be a lot of cleanup going on around the area in the next few weeks.
We are ready for the Beach Cleanup
This has been a strange year for weather in Destin. We had the ice storm. Then the violent thunderstorms a few weeks ago. Now this parade of thunderstorms that dumped more water than even our sandy soil could handle. I wonder if a cloud of locust are coming next!
Our weekend looks like it is going to be great. We will take it. Friday night we have a Crab Island Mambo party at Crab Island Cantina on the harbor with Gene Mitchell playing for us from 5-9 pm. Saturday we will be on the beach for our first cleanup of the year. Everyone is welcome to join us at Beachwalk #2 on Okaloosa Island next to The Breakers resort.
A full report Monday on all the fun and games. See ya then!!!
While people in your area may seem to have a lot of experience with flooding, no one could possibly be ready for a record-breaking flood such as this. It's unfortunate that a lot of homes were flooded despite heavy preparations, but it would have been worse if people weren't as prepared as they were. I hope you guys were able to recover from this soon after. Stay safe!
ReplyDeleteSharon Strock @ Storm Chamber