A Surprise Issue of Mosaic Moments.
I am happy to report that, except for a period of wavering electricity Wednesday night that sent my computer offline once and my TV offline twice, my immediate area of Longwood (FL) survived with very little damage. But areas within three miles on either side did not fare so well. Even my church is without power at the moment. As are about 180,000 other homes in the Orlando area. And the shoreline, particularly the southwest Gulf Coast was absolutely devastated, as you will see in the videos and photos below. (I suspect the electricity in my part of Longwood may have held because it is on a particularly sturdy grid - I am only a little over a mile from police headquarters, fire headquarters, town hall, and the hospital!)
The problem in our area - miles inland - was far more from rain than wind. All low-lying areas flooded from 15-20" of rain over c. 36 hours. Lakes, ponds & streams overflowed, as did the "retention ponds" designed to cope with run-off. I am blessed to be on top of what I call a "Florida hill:; i.e., higher than the flat land around it. On Saturday morning - two days after Ian passed - rescues are still being made by boat and helicopter, not just along the coast but here in the Orlando area as well.
Since few are venturing out, lest we end up on a flooded road*, most of the photos and videos below came from my son in Connecticut who, like me, is a "weather freak." (He called me c. three times a day from Ian's approach to its fading away.) We frequently enjoy sharing weather info, and he knew I would appreciate the excellent series of pics he shared with me.
*Grace note: I drove two blocks to the grocery store yesterday, passing a very deep retention area that was grass on Tuesday. It is now an almost lake-sized pond.
This first photo was taken by a Facebook friend in Naples, FL, early Wednesday as Ian was about to make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast.
I'm not sure where the following pic was taken, but clearly the gator was as anxious for shelter as the rest of us.
The following pics and videos are from the series my son sent. Although you will need to "click" to see each one, the result will be well worth that slight effort.
For a view from a third floor apartment in Ft. Meyers, click here.
For a view from inside a hotel in Ft. Meyers, click here
For a view of a man saving a cat, click here
For a view of man saving someone else's dog, click here
For a view of a main street afloat but with the power still on, click here
For a view of Ian flooding inland Florida (Kissimmee, near Disneyworld), click here
For a view of the washed-out bridge to Captiva Island*, click here
* Also washed out, the bridges to Sanibel & Pine islands. No access except by boat or helicopter
Below is another amazing video sent by my son. It's the view from a camera set on a pole more than eight feet above ground level. If you watch the entire 2-minute video, you will see the storm surge come in, gradually rise until it's flicking drops on the camera lens, and finally swallowing the camera altogether.
For a view of the rising storm surge, click here
And as if that weren't enough, I'll sign off with a video of a shark swimming down the street in Ft. Meyers.
For a view of shark swimming down the street, click here
ADDENDUM: I had just finished writing the above - painstakingly transferring each pic, one at a time - when I turned on the TV and heard a woman describe her experience at a marina in Ft. Meyers. I missed the beginning, but I got the impression she was a snowbird; i.e., she flew down from up north to check on her boat. After securing it, she decided to do what she did during Hurricane Irma - wait out the storm in the marina's Ladies Room. (FYI, most hurricanes go by with no more than 6-8 hours of the worst of it.) She went into the Ladies Room on Tuesday evening - and remained trapped there for all of Wednesday and Wednesday night, as the water gradually rose around her (and her cat, presumably in a carrier). Higher and higher it came, until she finally called 911, knowing no one could rescue her but wanting them to know where she was; i.e., where to find her body. Incredibly, both she and the cat survived, as did her boat (in a marina where most boats were tossed around like toys). I'm reminded of the old song, "Luck, be a lady tonight."
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If you're among the praying kind of whatever religion, I ask you to include all the currently homeless in the wide swath of Florida hit by Ian. From Naples and Fort Meyers, catty-corner through all the inland counties, and back out to deal more devastation to Florida's East Coast from Cape Canaveral to St. Augustine. (And yes, the Artemis moon rocket was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (an 8-hr trip) well before the storm hit. Launch postponed indefinitely.
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For a link to Blair's website, click here.
For a link to Blair's Facebook Author Page click here.
Thanks for stopping by,
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