Maritime Forest – Amelia Island and Irma

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017Chris and Carol 6 Comments

Amelia Island is a barrier island located in extreme northeast Florida along the Atlantic Ocean. It’s about 13 miles long and about 2 miles across at the widest point. The forest extends north-south along almost the entire length of the island – broken in only a few areas where roads pass through running from east to west. We locally call this strip of trees the greenway.

For about 72 hours prior to the arrival of Irma (well west of us and a tropical storm by then), a strong nor’easter had set up over the region producing almost continuous rainfall and sustained onshore winds of at least 20-30 mph with some gusts into the 45 mph range. Irma added heavy squalls into the equation as a major feeder band moved northward up the Florida east coast. For nearly 36 hours, our maritime forest and coast were battered by onshore winds of sustained 45 to 55 mph with frequent gusts to the low 80 mph range.

The effects of this persistent onshore wind took a heavy toll on the forest islandwide – numerous trees down, branches twisted off and thousands of tons (yes tons) of leaves lost.

In our own backyard, which is part of the forest, we lost numerous branches and a crazy amount of leaves. No trees down but in our small neighborhood many large oaks were felled by the strong winds (and soaked ground). It’s been almost 3 weeks now since Irma and some of the trees in our yard are showing the effects of the whipping winds.

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It looks like a typical autumn day (above) but the bald cypress trees here don’t change color until late November and generally don’t lose their needles until mid December. The color change reflects dead and dying needles on the branches.

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A closer look (above) shows many bare spots where the needles were simply stripped away from the branches.

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A large oak blown down during Irma (above).

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A rather large oak branch ripped away from the tree (above) in the persistent winds of Irma.

Our house is just about 800 meters away from the ocean… we don’t usually get heavy salt spray here but we did during the nor’easter and Irma. I’m sure some of the color change in the cypress trees has something to do with the spray and wind.

The trees will recover. They took this same type of beating last October during the passage offshore of Hurricane Matthew.

Thanks for your visit!

Chris

American Beach – Amelia Island

September 16, 2017September 16, 2017Chris and Carol 1 Comment

No widespread flooding during Irma from storm surge but a few low lying areas did flood from the heavy rainfall during the storm.

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Thanks for your visit and wishing all a speedy recovery.

Chris

Tropical Storm Force Winds – Irma

September 14, 2017September 14, 2017Chris and Carol 5 Comments

Here’s a small sample of what it was like here in extreme Northeast Florida on the morning of September 11, 2017 as TS Irma (downgraded from hurricane at that time) made its way northward across the north central part of the state well west of Amelia Island.

The winds were east-southeasterly at about 40 mph sustained with gusts into the 60-70 mph range when this video was taken at 8 AM. The oak in the video is about 60 feet tall and nearly 80 feet across. It held up nicely in the relentless winds. Check out the 20 foot tall flagpole – it did well too.

The flooding in the street was from the heavy rainfall and blocked storm drains and not from storm surge. Once the drains were cleared the water was gone.

A big shout out goes to the fearless linemen from Illinois that worked to restore our power… which was out for only 61 hours! Considering how much damage there was that was a remarkably short period of time. At one point in the repair work near our neighborhood, dozens of linemen were using five power company bucket trucks to string new wires and set new poles. Thank you!!!

Chris

Irma Damage

September 14, 2017September 14, 2017Chris and Carol 2 Comments

Almost everywhere in Florida was affected by Hurricane Irma – some more directly than others and of course some suffered a complete loss of their homes, businesses, cars and lives. The difficult journey of recovering from the damage and destruction will be a long one and some will just give up and go.

Our corner of Northeast Florida (our little island) for the most part did pretty well considering where we are located. Closer to home, our neighborhood had damage but the homes came through. We lost our power for 61 hours – a small time really compared to what others will see.

These pictures are from around 8 AM or so on Monday morning (9-11-2017) – the winds were still gusting into the high 60 mph range with some gusts to near 90 mph in the predawn hours.

Neighbors house avoids getting damaged from a rather large oak branch.

Directly behind our house on another street. This was about a 60 foot oak that blew down and missed the house completely.

Just outside the neighborhood at the beach. Just after the highest water was receding.

At the beach. Only a few poles came down.

Some damage along the beach road (above and below).

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By the afternoon on Monday, the strongest onshore winds were past but the ocean was still very rough.

The best to all that are suffering through their recoveries from Harvey and Irma.

Chris and Carol

Our Silly Old Cat!

September 13, 2017September 13, 2017Chris and Carol 2 Comments

Zoe, our 18 year old Siamese cat decides to check out something she’s never seen before.

A rather large puddle in front of our house created by the heavy rains from the passage (well west of us) of Hurricane Irma. Zoe ran out from the garage and down the driveway (with winds around 35 mph with gusts to around 55 mph or so) to get a closer look at this “new found thing” (and a drink!).

What we don’t see is that as soon as I moved the camera away, she proceeded to JUMP into the puddle and swim around!!! I couldn’t believe what I saw and of course she was out in a flash – soaked and meowing her head off! No damage done and now she knows that she can’t walk on water.

The street flooded only because the drains were blocked by leaves that had been ripped off the oak trees by the gusty winds. As soon as a neighbor cleared the drains (shortly after this shot) the street was back to normal and Zoe’s swimming hole was gone.