9:00 a.m. Gulfport, Florida, high tide. Driving down to the marina to check out an expected two to three feet above normal high tide, I’m stopped halfway down 29th st, my normal route to the marina. The road is flooded. If I had a Humscalade or other monster earth wrecking vehicle I may have made it. My ’96 Nissan 240 that scrapes the road (and cement parking curbs) is not going to make it. After shooting the below pic, I circle around closer to the water, which is actually higher ground and make my way to pier 3.
Stepping out of the little roadwarrior car, the boats in front of me look very surreal. They are all up almost level with the parking lot – and they look twice as big! The power of these storms is really amazing. Here’s a CAT 1 or 2 Hurricane that is 350 miles from Tampa Bay and it rasies every boat in the marina to eye level. What in the world would happen if it was right on top of us? This little phenom shakes off my apathy and I’m starting to think hard about how to prepare the boat for a severe storm surge. One big problem is more than half (I would bet) boats in the marina are neglected and it’s those boats that will come loose and do the damage. Here’s a few more pics.
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